Thunderful Group, a Swedish video game holding company that owns a number of game publishers and developers as well as gaming and toy distribution companies, has announced that it plans to lay off around 20% of its staff as it restructures its operations.
Announced today (January 17), a press release stated that the restructuring process is being put in place in order to “strengthen the Group’s long-term competitive position” with the aim of reducing costs and focusing on “areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects.” This comes primarily as a result of “over-investments made in the last few years” that “have proven unsustainable given the current industry climate” and “challenging marketing conditions.”
In a statement, Thunderful’s CEO, Martin Walfisz, said that these decisions have been “difficult” to make, but is “convinced this is a necessary direction” for the company.
“To ensure and strengthen the viability of the Group, we have found no alternative other than to reduce costs and focus the business on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects,” he said. “It has been difficult to make these decisions, and it saddens me that we will have to say goodbye to many skilled colleagues and partners. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this is a necessary direction for Thunderful and that these changes will make the company a stronger player in the market.”
Thunderful owns a variety of subsidiaries, including Rising Star Games (which has published several Harvest Moon and Rune Factory titles), developer Coatsink (which made the slice-of-life fishing RPG Moonglow Bay), and distribution company Bergsala.
At the time of writing, Thunderful hasn’t confirmed which parts of the company will be facing staff cuts – TechRadar Gaming (TRG) reached out to ask, but was not provided with a comment.
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