2K has reportedly initiated a second round of layoffs at WWE 2K, NBA 2K, and Lego 2K Drive developer Visual Concepts Austin, with an unknown number of staff impacted. As spotted by Game Developer, multiple former employees of the studio have taken to LinkedIn to share their redundancies, while also indicating widespread cuts.
“The games industry bloodletting continues,” Brad Bowling, former art manager said. “Today, Visual Concepts Austin laid off myself and a group of very talented developers. I have had a great time over the past couple of years working with some of the finest game devs in the industry. Over the past 23 years of making game art, I have seen some downturns but nothing like this.”
Another former developer confirmed “several other amazing colleagues” were laid off recently.
“After a great year of working at Visual Concepts Austin it’s sad to say I’ve been laid off as of today along with several other amazing colleagues. I will miss all of those that I worked with greatly,” they said, in a post which has since been taken down. “It’s definitely rough as it’s only been a year and a half since I was previously laid off as well. Even in this tough market I found a job once I can hopefully do it again.”
Read: Sega of America is laying off 61 employees
As noted by Game Developer, this is the second round of layoffs to hit Visual Concepts, following similar cuts in September 2023.
For now, there is no official word from Visual Concepts or 2K on the reason for the recent layoffs – although it follows rounds of significant cost-cutting at parent company, Take-Two Interactive. It also follows a pattern of games industry cuts that kicked off in 2023.
The size and scope of the layoffs at Visual Concepts remains unclear.
