Relic Entertainment, the Vancouver-based game developer known mainly for their RTS titles, announced today that it would lay off 121 of its employees. The studio is owned by Sega Europe.
In a Twitter post announcing the layoffs, Relic stated:
This comes at a time when external factors are challenging our industry more than ever, and we made this decision to restructure our organization to ensure maximum focus is placed on our core franchises.
We're confident that following this necessary restructuring, Relic will be in a position of strength to continue delivering outstanding experiences to players all over the world.
The message added that Relic and Sega were putting their focus at the moment on supporting the studio's departed employees. It said, "We would like to offer our sincerest thanks to each of them for the part they've played in making Relic such a special studio."
Relic's last game was the WWII RTS title Company of Heroes 3, which was released for the PC in February 2023. It will still be released for the Xbox Series X and S consoles, and the PlayStation 5 console, on May 30. It will be the first time the series will be released on console systems. Relic's statement today said it was "fully committed to supporting and investing in our titles."
Relic also developed Age of Empires IV for Microsoft's Xbox Games Studios and it was first released in October 2021. It recently released a Season 4 content update for the historical RTS game. That game is also supposed to be coming to Microsoft's Xbox consoles sometime in 2023.
Relic's other games have included the first two games in the space-based Homeworld RTS series, and three games in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War strategy series. There's no word yet on what the studio is working on for its next stand-alone game.
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