A recent report suggests that British publisher Team17 may be facing difficulties.
According to Eurogamer, which cites “sources close to the company,” around 50 employees from Team17’s quality assurance department are at risk of losing their jobs as part of a company restructuring effort. Instead of using in-house employees, Team17 plans to outsource its quality assurance.
As part of this restructuring, it is expected that Team17 Digital CEO Michael Pattison will step down. Eurogamer’s report states that a new document outlining the proposed changes to the team structure was shared with staff members today.
The majority of the at-risk QA employees are junior analysts, although it is unclear if any other departments at Team17 are also at risk.
Team17 has experienced a turbulent couple of years.
Earlier this year, long-time CEO Debbie Bestwick stepped down from the company following staff complaints related to poor treatment and low pay in the previous year.
Before that, during the short-lived NFT craze in early 2022, Team17 announced its own NFT project based on the Worms property but quickly abandoned it due to fan backlash.
In addition, Eurogamer reports that this latest round of layoffs follows another round that took place in March of this year, which affected departments such as art and design.
These reported layoffs at Team17 come shortly after Sega announced a corporate restructuring that resulted in the cancellation of the live-service shooter Hyenas and layoffs at British studio Creative Assembly.
Furthermore, the holding company Embracer Group has undergone significant restructuring, leading to the closure of the Saints Row studio Volition and layoffs across various companies in the industry.
Update: We contacted Team17 for a comment, and a spokesperson provided the following statement:
Regarding the reports about Michael Pattison’s departure from Team17, we can confirm that we have mutually agreed to part ways with Michael. We can also confirm that today we have unfortunately entered a period of consultation within Team17 Digital, while Astragon and Storytoys remain unaffected by the restructuring plans.
Stay tuned for further updates on this matter.