Razer has cut up to 30 members of its team amid a company-wide realignment according to reports which emerged earlier this week. The layoffs are expected to affect approximately 2 percent of the overall staff at Razer and will hit the mobile gaming and mobile engineering divisions the hardest.
According to an anonymous tip given to Droid Life, Razer let go of the majority of its mobile development team last Friday with further cuts also hitting some in the marketing department. The tip explains that a limited number of staff members will remain working within the mobile division to complete work on future updates for the Razer Phone 2 but that all plans for a follow-up mobile device had been shelved.
Droid Life pursued this tip, seeking out any potential staff who had left the company recently and found several over the course of the past month who had been let go from the mobile division.
When contacted for a comment regarding the future of the company’s mobile teams, Razer issued a statement to Droid Life, though specifics were avoided. Razer stated that 2 percent of its workforce had been let go as part of a necessary corporate realignment to better centralize its resources and focus on key projects. The statement also notes that the layoffs were regrettable but that those who would also be affected by this realignment that are still at the company would be moved onto to other projects and have their employment maintained.
It’s not the first time lately that we have heard of big gaming tech companies “centralizing.” The same language was used by Activision Blizzard recently during its mammoth restructuring which saw 800 people out of a job.
Razer later followed its initial statement with another, explaining that while the layoffs had directly impacted the company’s mobile division, that it still saw a bright future in the mobile gaming market. The new statement goes to explain that the company will continue to invest in hardware and software for mobile and that those staff members who were not impacted by the layoffs will be put to good use on other projects.
Razer made headlines earlier this week when it announced that the Razer Games Store would be closing down on February 28, less than a year after it first launched. The digital marketplace offered a small variety of benefits over its larger competitors but Razer has made the decision to close up shop. Users have been assured that their purchases will remain functional after the closure.
