Operaction Raccoon City Dev Hit By Temporary Layoffs

It was Slant Six that developed the atrocity that was Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, turning it in to a C list crappy shooter. Capcom think otherwise. Nevertheless, I think people will have another reason to hate Slant Six after laying off a third of their 96 employees in order to save on costs and take on additional projects. They were given the option of either taking a severance package or getting the hell out of there, temporarily they say, and well I guess most chose the latter.

“Regretfully, we can confirm that there have been some temporary layoffs at our studio,” the company’s official statement reads. “We must stress that these are temporary layoffs, which means we are working very hard on new business prospects so we can reinstate every single person affected. As an independent and close-knit studio it is a very difficult but necessary business measure due to the current project cycle demands.”

The representative said most of the 26 affected employees chose to accept the temporarily layoff, and the company’s remaining 70 staffers are continuing to work on its two current projects. One of them is “a collaborative game venture with a major publisher,” while the other is Slant Six’s first self-published title, Strata Scavenger. A new intellectual property, Strata Scavenger is a downloadable post-apocalyptic flight sim for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is set for release early next year.

Just three years ago, the seven year old developer was named one of the best companies to work for by BC Business. It’s listed as having 100 employees, and being a place “where anyone can bring up ideas, roadblocks, inspiration or advice, which keeps staff informed about how their co-workers are doing.” That’s a shame.

Even though I despise what they did with the last Resident Evil, it’s always sad hearing people being out of a job especially with a weak global economy. Canada, home of Slant Six, is no exception. Hopefully, their future projects will enable them to turn it all around.