Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment lays off 20-30 people

Reports are coming out of Obsidian Entertainment – developers of titles including Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2 and the upcoming South Park RPG – that a number of staff have been laid off. The staff, according to a tip received by Joystiq, include “Approximately 20-30 people from all disciplines, including one person who started yesterday.” Potentially affected projects include the South Park RPG and a future, unnamed game for next-gen consoles.

According to the toll being racked up at the Obsidian forums, staff directly affected by the redundancy were working on South Park, future DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, and unnamed projects such as a next-gen title codenamed Project North Carolina. That project's producer, Jason Fader, was among the first to (somewhat obliquely) spread the bad news via Twitter. Other staff understood to have lost their jobs include Interplay veteran and Neverwinter Nights 2/Fallout: New Vegas lead programmer Frank Kowalkowski, as well as level designer Jessica Johnson, whose credits include an “Unannounced Fallout: New Vegas Project.”

So, hey, if you were looking for a bright side, some 30 people are looking for new jobs, but you might soon get to look for new snowglobes? Look, we didn't say it was a good bright side.