Firestoppers: Lay-Offs At Firaxis

Oh, boo. Boo. Around 20 people have lost their jobs at Civilization developer Firaxis, reports the K-monster. Apparently those going include members of the quality assurance team, the user interface art team, animators, programmers and designers.

Boo.

Sez 2K PR overloard Markus Wilding, "I can confirm that Firaxis has realigned its development resources in order to streamline its development process, reduce costs and maximize the overall performance the studio.This will result in the elimination of approximately 20 positions. These reductions will not impact Firaxis' ability to create and deliver AAA titles, including its forthcoming Sid Meier's Civilization V and Sid Meier's Civilization Network for Facebook."

With Civ V so close to release (September, hex fans - and I'm very slowly downloading a preview build onto my PC at the moment. Embargo-free pre-thoughts on that sometime in August, I believe) this just seems cruel and strange. The big money's about to roll in within weeks - why make cuts now?

Sid Meier is keeping his job though, lest ye wondered.

Sad hugs and firm, manly handshakes to all those affected by these redundancies. May you find proud, exciting new roles on proud, exciting new games as soon as possible.