After Jam City Inc., a video game company with headquarters in the United States laid off dozens of employees on Thursday, Aug. 4, including those at its Ludia subsidiary in Montreal, former employees spoken out about the decision and treatment.
According to a report from CBC, some former employees have reached out to share how the company's manner of downsizing the company has disrespected them in numerous ways. Some employees who were laid off expressed that they did not receive any formal notifications regarding the layoff. Instead, the news came to them through word-of-mouth.
Jam City Layoffs Affected 150-200 Employees
The video game company Jam City shockingly laid off more than a hundred employees earlier this week. According to reports, the video game company has terminated almost 17 percent of its workforce, and around 150 to 200 individuals were affected.
According to some informants, the company management held a meeting only for employees unaffected by the layoff. Coworkers were instructed to hide the information from the impacted staff members so that they could learn of their termination in private meetings with human services later on the day.
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In a move further disgruntling the laid-off employees, the company even allegedly cut some employees' access to their work accounts and tools without any prior notice. They just cut it in the middle of the day without any reminders or warnings whatsoever. This move from the company is really harsh, according to one of the staff.
According to a report from Yahoo, an interviewed staff from the company mentioned that the layoffs were executed for economic purposes and also corporate restructuring. Also, some of them shared that they received emails from the company mentioning that the company was removing redundant roles. Of course, these former employees were angered with the company calling their roles redundant.
Jam City Take Over Brought Cultural Shift
Ludia is a video game company focusing on mobile games. Since its establishment in 2007, the company has introduced the following titles to mobile gaming: Jurassic World Alive, The Price Is Right, Family Feud, and other game show brands. But since Jam City's recent takeover, there have been a lot of changes in the Montreal company. One of these, according to its former employees, is its culture change.
A report from VentureBeat clarifies the reason behind the said company's downsizing. According to a spokesperson for Jam City, "Jam City has made the painful choice to cut the size of our staff by around 17 percent in light of the current global economy and its influence on the gaming sector. We have completed a number of strategic acquisitions recently, and this action right-sizes our workforce to handle any redundancies brought on by those transactions."
Unlike times before the Jam City acquisition, the company is now more focused on profit rather than the game developments themselves, say some former employees. The company is even more focused on bringing NFTs to its games.
Despite the recent layoffs, many terminated employees are hopeful to be joining other video game companies based in Montreal soon. With a growing gaming industry despite the recession, more companies will likely be more welcoming.
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