Halfbrick have made up to half of their staff redundant in a move to focus the studio on its two most successful games: Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride.
According to CNET, Halfbrick made up to 30 of their staff redundant on Monday with more redundancies looming on the horizon. These redundancies amount to approximately half of the current team.
Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride were massive successes. It feels like everyone with a functioning smartphone has played them at one point or another. These games put Halfbrick on the map as one of Australia’s gaming success stories.
Then the world moved on.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/11/australias-most-successful-game-studio-is-having-an-identity-crisis/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2012/02/fruit-410×231.jpg” title=”Australia’s Most Successful Game Studio Is Having An Identity Crisis” excerpt=”When an employee decided to leave there was a farewell. A slideshow, a card signed by everyone. A speech — a celebration — topped off by a ceremonial bag stuffed full of marshmallows. Weird, flippant by design. A sense of closure to dedicated service in pursuit of one unified goal. The creation of unique, innovative video game experiences.”]
Attempt after attempt was made to try and recreate the success of its earlier titles but by 2015 Halfbrick’s later games hadn’t caught on and Halfbrick made its design staff redundant.
The staff that remain after the latest redundancies will reportedly focus on getting the most out of the studio’s two biggest successes: Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. It always comes back to Fruit Ninja.
We have reached out to Halfbrick for comment and have not heard back from them at the time of publication.
[CNET]
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