Layoffs in the gaming industry have hit 2024 particularly badly, in this latest round Gamurs Group has cut jobs without warning across its many publications.
To say 2024 has been a bad year for job security in the gaming industry would be putting it mildly. Since January, an estimated 12,700 jobs have been cut in the gaming industry across all fields, and even gaming juggernauts like PlayStation and Microsoft have conducted their layoffs numbering well over 1000 between both companies. On Tuesday Gamurs Group, a company responsible for publications such as Destructoid, Dot Esports, Twinfinite, and PC Invasion laid off an unspecified amount of employees reportedly without warning. The news comes directly from the affected employees themselves, and below is a post on X (formerly Twitter) from former staffer of Destructoid, Jamie Sharp explaining the experience.
Aside from the Destructoid layoffs, Gamurs Group has also cut other jobs from their publications including Dot Esports Australian Editor Isaac McIntyre who explains he wasn’t warned regarding the potential job loss, just an email, and account lockout followed. McIntyre says on X “I’ve been made redundant by @GamursCom today after three years with @DotEsports. Done by a 5:00 pm email (no calls) and instant account-wide logouts, which was frankly disappointing considering my time with the company”.
Gamur Group publication Twinfinite also had a similar story. Former Managing Editor, Tom Hopkins also took to their personal X account to report on their “made redundant” employment. He states “I have also been made redundant by Gamurs and Twinfinite over a generic email when I woke up this morning” echoing the sentiment expressed by McIntyre. Across the internet, PC Invasion writer Diego Perez had a similar situation, and below is his post explaining his experience.
According to GameIndustry, the layoffs number 30 were part of a similar story heard from all of the other layoffs conducted in 2024. According to an unnamed source, 30 people were terminated internally and immediately cut off from their accounts and Slack channels making it difficult to say goodbye to colleagues. Reportedly, Gamurs Group said the layoffs “represent a significant but important restructuring of the business and [its] current priorities.” While Gamurs Group recently made job cuts back in July, it remains to be seen if this is the last wave of layoffs from the company.
