Surgeon Simulator studio Bossa is making layoffs as it ‘scales back’ operations
Bossa announces job cuts amid “a fundamental transformation of the games industry”
Surgeon Simulator studio Bossa Games has announced that it’s making an unspecified number of layoffs as part of restructuring efforts.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn, studio co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Olifiers said the company was the latest to fail to successfully adapt to what he called “a fundamental transformation of the games industry” over the past couple of years.
The studio will be “scaling back” its development teams in order to focus on the upcoming release of Lost Skies, a co-operative survival adventure set on floating islands in the clouds.
“In our view this is not a phase, it’s a fundamental transformation of the games industry, a reshape of how games are made and by what kinds of teams,” Olifiers wrote. “The industry of two years in the future will not look like the industry of two years ago.
“We’ve had to make the painful decision to scale back, focusing on the late-stage production of Lost Skies and its upcoming launch, ensuring the game is successfully released and evolved for its players for the foreseeable future.
“Once Lost Skies is established and enjoying live operations, we’ll reshape into small teams working independently on novel game ideas brought to the players as early as possible,” he continued.
“This means saying very difficult goodbyes to extremely talented and treasured colleagues, truly some of the best people in the games industry, who have been part of our journey for a long time.
“We wish we had found a way of navigating this turmoil without resorting to the decision of scaling back our teams, but unfortunately we’ve failed in this endeavour.”
At the end of 2023, Bossa laid off approximately one-third of its staff. This reportedly saw 19 of 59 employees let go from the studio, which was founded in 2010 in London but is now fully remote.
