Layoffs at Westwood

[Gobalopper]

Some interesting developments at Westwood the last few days. GameSpot has a news story about layoffs at the Las Vegas offices but no projects have been canceled. Check out the details below:

Westwood Studios, the Electronic Arts-owned game developer that created the popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy game series, has laid off some of its staff. According to an EA representative, the layoffs are part of the natural cycle of development, and the company may hire staff in the future when new projects are assigned. EA would not specify how many people were affected by the layoffs, saying only that it was a "relatively small number of Westwood employees." Sources close to the company estimate that the layoffs affected approximately 12 people.

The studio recently released three games--Emperor: Battle for Dune and Command & Conquer Renegade for the PC and Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox--and has cut back staff from a variety of functions and projects. No specific project was targeted, and the layoffs are not expected to have any affect on Earth and Beyond Online, Westwood's upcoming online role-playing game, or any other Westwood projects. All affected employees were offered severance and outplacement services.

Cliff (Devinoch) is still around but there were some good people affected by the layoffs. There should be more details on what all is going on in the next week or so. 12 seems a little low and there will be a few changes even if projects aren't canceled, I'll let you know if I learn anything more. Hopefully those affected will find jobs elsewhere and Westwood can get over the recent downtimes.

Update: If you didn't think this was all that important VoodooExtreme has a news post giving more details. Joe Kucan (Kane) was one of the many let go but he may return to play Kane in future C&C titles. For those of you wondering Devinoch, former Emperor community manager, is moving into development and Delphi will be taking over all the community coverage once again.