Enad Global 7-owned Piranha Games, the developer of the MechWarrior series, has laid off 30 percent of its staff this week, according to CEO Russ Bullock.
The statement comes in the form of a social media post in response to Arman Nouri, senior environment artist at Epic Games and former Piranha Games developer. On Wednesday, Nouri said the studio just had “massive layoffs,” saying that “60 percent of staff” had been affected and that the team was moving away from MechWarrior.
“Not accurate,” wrote CEO Russ Bullock. “It was 30 percent of the staff which was a horrible day no doubt but we do still continue to work on DLC.” In another post, Bullock said “it was a very tough day on Monday.”
As reported by GamesIndustry.Biz yesterday, multiple employees at the studio said on LinkedIn that they were affected by layoffs, spanning roles in writing, FX/VFX, environment and technical art, level design, software engineering, and more.
“Today, my journey at Piranha Games Inc. has come to an end due to recent economic restructuring within the company,” wrote a former technical artist on the team. “While it is tough to say goodbye, I am incredibly grateful for the amazing team I worked with and the projects we brought to life.”
A fellow employee and former senior VFX artist also used the term “economic restructuring” on LinkedIn. In a follow-up response, the developer wrote that “‘economic restructuring’ was just my formal way of saying I was laid off.”
This is the second round of job cuts in over a year. In January 2025, parent company Enad Global 7, which acquired Piranha Games back in late 2020, restructured the studio, as well as fellow subsidiary Toadman Interactive. 38 employees were affected in Piranha.
In an announcement at the time, Enad CEO JI Ham said that MechWarrior 5: Clans sold “below expectations,” and stated the layoffs will “ensure [the studio] continues to operate with a sound profitability while being able to ship new content according to plan.”
“The team at Piranha truly delivered a high-quality game that exceeded both internal as well as external expectations,” he continued. “Despite the phenomenal work by the team at Piranha, the game failed to reach new audiences and expand its core audience as anticipated and therefore has not met the necessary sales targets, which has forced us to undertake necessary actions.”Layoffs have been rampant across the game industry, and the last couple of weeks have been particularly brutal, with job cuts extending throughout Eidos Montreal, Polyarc, Crystal Dynamics, Ubisoft, and Epic Games, the latter of which laid off over 1,000 people. Moreover, multiple companies have shuttered entire studios, including Sony’s Dark Outlaw Games, Ivy Road, Rec Room, and Coffee Stain’s Malmo studio.
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About the Author
Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com
Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for places like The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, and more. He also runs Into the Spine, a site dedicated to fostering and supporting new writers, and co-hosted Turnabout Breakdown, a podcast about the Ace Attorney series. He’s most likely playing a rhythm game as you read this.
