Virtuos, studio behind hugely successful Oblivion Remaster slap around 300 staff with layoffs

A French journalist, Gauthier ‘Gautoz’ Andres, reported yesterday that the studio behind the recent Oblivion remaster and upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3 remaster, Delta, is prepping to lay off 7% of its workforce. Now, it has been confirmed by Virtuos that around 300 people have been affected by the layoffs.

In a grim blog titled “Adapting for the Future of Game Development”, the Singapore headquartered company runs through its official reasoning for the layoffs.

Virtuos claims that the staff being impacted come from teams “facing lower occupancy and slower demand”. The numbers include 200 from Asia, where the studio originally set itself up, and 70 in Europe. It specifically points out “fewer than 10 in France”, which have far stronger workers’ rights.

Andres reported through his Bluesky thread that the numbers from Asia will “initially target China”.

Of course, there’s more to the story (allegedly)

However, the thread by Andres gives a little more potential insight than Virtuos’ press release. According to Andres’ sources, the Oblivion remaster is on a royalty-free contract, meaning that the company won’t receive bonuses regardless of the success.

Virtuos has reportedly made significant efforts on Oblivion, with a policy of over-quality within its budget and a royalty-free contract (without bonuses linked to the game’s success). The result: teams are being put under severe strain for a purely showcase game, whose profitability is doomed to be questioned.

Machine translated.

Be successful, get laid off is the new industry motto

Xbox and Bethesda’s revival of the fan favorite role-playing game managed to sell “more units” in the month of April than the original game did in its first 15 months on shelves. Other numbers put it at 4 million players during early doors, thanks to it launching on Game Pass, the subscription service.

Andres reports that Virtuos was operating on a quality-over-budget idea. Regardless of what the budget was, the game was going to be better than that. This, of course, again, according to those anonymous sources, led to questions after teams were put under “severe strain” in a “showcase game”.

This then apparently led to what’s described as a “freeze on raises and a reduction in bonuses at the group level.” During this time, there are claims that staff questioned whether layoffs were on the table or not.

Again, while it’s unconfirmed, a French branch based in Lyon has reportedly protested the layoffs through a strike, as well as wanting protections over potential future layoffs.

Layoffs hit Virtuos as its latest Cyberpunk 2077 patch lands

Yesterday, Virtuos launched the next Cyberpunk 2077 patch, bringing new quests and cars to the five-year-old game. It’s also gearing up to launch Metal Gear Solid: Delta, a remaster in the same vein as Oblivion, in August. It has also spent the last few years acquiring different teams to assist with pipeline development work, including the following:

• Beyond-FX
• Pipeworks
• Umanaïa
• Third Kind Games
• Abstraction

Virtuos claims that bringing in these Western teams is why its Asia-based staff have been hit the hardest.

The company is clearly trying to elevate itself from its support studio background and potentially fill gaps left by acquired companies like Bluepoint (Metal Gear Solid HD, Demon’s Souls remake). As well, as game development becomes far more complex and long in the tooth, it’s another option to be hired out while other similar studios are busy.

The Escapist has reached out for comment.