Big Layoffs At Thief Developer Eidos Montreal

UPDATE (4:15pm): Thief developer Eidos Montreal laid off 27 employees today. Here’s the full statement from their parent company, Square Enix:

Yes it is true we’ve let 27 people go today, unfortunately it’s something that every major studio has to do sometimes in order to ensure you have the right set up for current and future projects. It’s never a nice thing to do but we are genuinely trying to offer as much support as much as we can. We’re trying to re-locate as many people as possible into other roles here or at our other studios and we’ve been in touch several studios in Montreal to arrange a career day for those affected by this. We’re very thankful for all their hard work and we sincerely wish them well.

Original story follows:

Thief developer Eidos Montreal has just laid off a number of employees, according to multiple Kotaku sources.

We’ve heard differing numbers, but they’re big—one source says 30-50; another says 20+. Those people requested anonymity while speaking to Kotaku.

Thief, which came out last week, received middling reviews including a “No” from Kotaku. A number of reports suggested that the game had troubles during development. In October, Eidos Montreal cancelled an unannounced game that sources have told me was connected to the Japanese branch of Square Enix

https://lastchance.cc/thief-the-kotaku-review-1529393950%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

We’ve reached out to Square Enix for confirmation.