Hangar 13 has been hit with another round of layoffs, this time affecting 50 employees.
Beleaguered 2K subsidiary Hangar 13 has suffered multiple setbacks since launching Mafia 3 in 2016. The studio already lost staff in two rounds of layoffs in 2017 and 2018, their former studio head Haden Blackman resigned this month and now the studio is letting go more staff from its Novato office in California.
As reported by Kotaku, the Novato office is set to lose 50 of its approximately 87 staff. In a statement given to the publication, 2K called it “a challenging but ultimately promising transition period” and stated it is working to redeploy employees to other 2K studios and is giving their full support to those who cannot be placed. 2K’s reasoning for the layoffs was explained: “As part of our ongoing evaluations to ensure our resources are aligned with our goals, we have made some changes that have resulted in a reduction of positions and parting ways with some colleagues.”
Since the launch of Mafia 3, Hangar 13 just hasn’t been able to make any of its new projects stick. Despite an investment of over £40million ($50million) into a project codenamed Volt, parent company Take-Two shut the project down.
Hangar 13 will now be focusing on a Mafia prequel which is being developed at the studio’s Brighton office using Unreal Engine 5. Hangar 13 is also believed to be working on a new instalment in the 2K Top Spin series of tennis games.
In a leaked recording of a meeting, new studio head Nick Baynes had with the Novato staff (thanks again, Kotaku), Baynes expressed his regret over the layoffs and stated that Hangar 13 will be focusing exclusively on Mafia and ‘Project Hammer’ (likely the Top Spin revival) from now on.
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