Australian crypto gaming start-up Immutable will make 11% of its staff redundant today as it attempts to make the most of its remaining cash reserves and prioritise important productions.
This latest round of redundancies comes just seven months after the last gutted its Melbourne-based web3 gaming operations.
Redundancies began this morning. Kotaku Australia received an anonymous tip from a former staffer shortly before this story from the Sydney Morning Herald broke the news. In a note seen by the SMH, co-founder and CEO James Ferguson explained the news to staff.
“An unfortunate consequence of these decisions is that we will be reducing the size of our team by approximately 11 per cent,” Ferguson wrote. “This is difficult news, and I am sorry to all Immutables impacted by these changes. As CEO, I am deeply aware that these role eliminations will directly impact the lives of many, and I take full ownership for these actions.”
The note goes on to explain that Immutable will make a number of changes within the organisation, part of which includes passing more traditional game development work to business partners. It will do this in order to focus more directly on the crypto and web3 aspects of its games, including card battler Gods Unchained.
The SMH reports that staff were told they would be advised by email if they were likely to no longer have a job by the end of the day, with one-on-one meetings to follow. “We will be pausing access to Immutable systems for all potentially impacted employees; however email and calendar access will remain open until your scheduled meeting,” reads Ferguson’s note.
Despite this being the second gutting of its web3 game dev operations in 12 months, Ferguson still thinks Immutable can dominate the space.
“It is my belief though that these tough choices will strengthen Immutable’s long-term position by protecting road map delivery and ensuring our category leadership,” reads the note to staff. “We have unwavering conviction in the significant opportunity we are executing against, and we know there is still so much innovation and transformation yet to come for web3 gaming.”
Immutable was the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in the last two years, banking a $280 million funding round in March 2022 at a company valuation of $3.2 billion. One wonders where all that money went (though the collapse of FTX last year probably had something to do with it).
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