Soul Assembly, the studio behind Drop Dead: The Cabin and Just Dance VR, is undergoing redundancies.
The news emerged after multiple staff members confirmed via LinkedIn that the UK-based studio is facing redundancies. Though we've yet to establish the full extent of affected departments across the studio, this has affected QA, marketing, animation, and various artists.
In an email to UploadVR, CEO David Solari advised 15% of the team have been made redundant. Here's the full statement.
"We can confirm a reduction in our team by 15%. This decision was taken to ensure the studio is aligned with the requirements of our upcoming projects. We are providing support to the affected team members as they transition to new opportunities and thank them for their contributions. This step was necessary to position the company for future success during a challenging time for the gaming industry."
Soul Assembly could be considered one of VR gaming's more seasoned veterans, and 2022 saw it spin out of developer Pixel Toys to become its own studio. While Just Dance VR and Last Stand are its most recent titles, previous games include Warhammer 40k: Battle Sister and Drop Dead: Dual Strike. The studio's also made inroads into mixed reality with Drop Dead: The Cabin's Home Invasion mode for Quest and Soul Spire for Apple Vision Pro.
It's the latest studio to announce layoffs following a rough two years for the video game industry. Last October saw Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded studio XR Games announce a large-scale restructuring that reportedly affected 72 staff members. Before that, nDreams confirmed layoffs affecting 17.5% of staff right before launching two then-upcoming games; Vendetta Forever and Frenzies.
Update Notice
This article was updated shortly after publication to include an official statement from David Solari, Soul Assembly's CEO.
