Virtuos, a massive global game development operation best known as a support, outsourcing, and remaster specialist behind the likes of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, is reportedly the latest games studio to weather heavy layoffs.
French journalist Gauthier Andres of Origami reports that Virtuos is cutting around 300 people, or 7% of its total staff, in a reduction plan that will hit locations in multiple regions. The company's website currently shows that it employs over 4,200 people around the world, so 7% of that would be around 294 people laid off, which lines up pretty well.
Origami reports that these layoffs will be concentrated in China, but will ultimately ripple out across other studios including Virtuos' French studios, which were notably attached to Oblivion Remastered. In the past few years, Virtuos has opened new studios in several countries, including Japan, Ukraine, and Malaysia.
As a support studio, Virtuos has contributed to, rather than strictly made, a great deal of games, including high-profile releases like Horizon Forbidden West (character and environment art), Dark Souls (the Nintendo Switch version of the remaster), and, according to its website, upcoming games like Judas from BioShock creator Ken Levine.
Just today, right alongside this layoff report, Virtuos lead game designer Adrien Jouannet appeared on a Cyberpunk 2077 stream showing off update 2.3 with several CD Projekt Red devs to discuss its ongoing work with the studio. Virtuos has stepped in as a patch co-developer as the CDPR mothership moves onto other projects but can't seem to leave Cyberpunk be.
You can find support outfits like Virtuos in the credits of virtually every big game, and plenty of smaller ones too, but the studio's recently become known for larger releases like Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta where it's taken on a bigger role in production, albeit still as co-dev. Virtuos is directly listed as a developer in the Steam listing for Oblivion Remastered, for instance, whereas Konami alone is listed for the Metal Gear remake.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is unreleased, but it has consistently impressed visually and is attached to a big IP. Oblivion Remastered was a massive hit and Bethesda heaped praise on Virtuos as a partner, but evidently this hasn't spared it from the layoffs still going around the industry. Making a good game often doesn't.
In fact, Origami reports that Oblivion Remastered was an especially huge effort for Virtuos, but a lack of proportional royalties from the project meant the game's success didn't necessarily boost the studio's bottom line. Raise freezes and executive bonus reductions reportedly hit the company earlier this year, leaving many worried about potential layoffs.
Last month, Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux told Inverse that the company's co-developer model is only becoming more important to an industry struggling to take any risks and steadily falling into patterns as AAA development budgets balloon.
"One of the classic entry points to co-development was art outsourcing. How can we get large volumes of art made cheaply offshore? That has limitations as you still have to bring the art back, integrate it, and finalize it," Langourieux said. "So there’s been a transition to a more integrated model, where the more sophisticated provider, like Virtuos, are able to integrate in the development pipeline, and because of that they can also add design, engineering, and other capabilities."
"If every time you make your product you have to put $100 million on the line, you’re not going to be taking a lot of risks," he added, going on to champion the cost-effectiveness of outsourced game development. "If you can ship a great product with a lower investment, you might be taking more risks. That’s where I think we have a great role to play."
We've reached out to Virtuos for comment on these reported layoffs.
