XR Games, the Leeds, UK-based studio known for Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded (2024) and Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever (2021), have laid off a reported 86 percent of its staff.

The information was shared by María Fernanda Díez Huerta via LinkedIn, who was Head of Production at XR Games from 2021 – 2023. Huerta reported on Tuesday the studio has now laid off 72 employees, retaining only 12 out of around 84, something she notes “goes beyond restructuring.”

This includes a number of positions in art, programming, QA, production, game design and IT.

Neither XR Games nor its CEO Bobby Thandi have made a public announcement addressing layoffs yet, however it’s hard to imagine it doesn’t have something to do with the generally unfavorable reception of Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, a Quest-exclusive port of the stealth-action title that proved to be a visual and mechanical mess at launch.

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The layoff round comes amid two high-profile projects currently in production by the studio: Zombie Army VR, a VR shooter based on the popular franchise from Rebellion, and Starship Troopers: Continuum, an online co-cop shooter created in partnership with Sony—announced just a day before news of the layoffs first broke.

XR Games isn’t the only one who’s tightened its belt though. VR veteran studio nDreams announced in mid-September it was laying off around 17 percent of the studio. This comes amid the backdrop of a number of top publishers and studios reducing headcounts, such as Embracer Group, Unity, Microsoft, EA, Sony, Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive and Riot Games.

Other VR studios affected this year also include Meta’s Ready at Dawn (Lone Echo, Echo VR), Sony’s London Studio (PlayStation Worlds, Blood & Truth (2019), and indie developer Archiact (Doom 3 VR Edition).

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • ViRGiN
  • VRDeveloper

    It's impressive, I know people who are working solo on much more disruptive projects, who can't get investment, and these guys get investment easily

    All this only proves one thing: "In this world, meat only falls on the vegan's plate"

    • ichigo

      True. let's not ignore hiring practices from these places reminds me of when Twitter was sold and all the activists got fired and twitter still worked ok.

      Or how media production companies keep giving writer/director positions to people who keep doing flop after flop. Who do nothing but fail up for quota/union reasons.

      Maybe they should start hiring based on merit and not activism…i'm sure this will be a shock for them.

      • VRDeveloper

        Worse, I know why companies are burning so much money, but instead of dropping this bomb here, this scandal. I will publish an article on Medium soon.

    • kool

      Getting investments is all about perception. Who wouldn't be more willing to give money to a group of people with the same name on their shirts rather than a single dude with a grand plan.

      • VRDeveloper

        Yes, you're right about calculating the risks. But the point here is a different one. In the past, we used to see this happen: a guy with a demo and a good plan would take an investment and make millions. Today, investors always choose people who don't even understand video games to create video games.

        This is called incompetence. Nothing more.

  • Hussain X

    Given the AI advancements, it must be playing a part in these huge lay offs as well.

    • namekuseijin

      I doubt AI will fix Hitman visual glitches or bring progress update

  • Octogod

    The beginning.

    Meta changed the way the store works, which will lead to dozens of studio closures in the next few weeks. Revenues are dropping by 80%, during what should be the only time of year they make money. Many more on the way.

    • VRDeveloper

      Sales are down because there aren't any games beyond the ones we already own that meet players' expectations. Personally, I don't have anything in mind when I think about spending money. There's a lack of good new games in the store. I'm excited for Batman and Behemoth, but right now, at this exact moment, there's no game available in the store that my friends or I want to buy. Most of them don't meet the quality level we expect.

      The store is flooded with tech demos and simple games that feel like mobile games. Even Hitman VR is a game where absolutely all the mechanics are behind the technology presented in other action games, and that was the problem. It could have been a great success; I really wanted it to be a good game, but it isn't…

      Which leads me to reflect: the company was working on two titles at the same time—that's absurd, haha. Whoever is leading this company should be fired and replaced with someone more qualified.

      • Octogod

        Sales are down because the store went from a curated set of featured titles to one where any title can be on the front page. It went from a thorough QA process, to one where automated QA is used. This removing the quality bar will not only increase the flood of mobile feeling games, it lowers it by allowing 2D apps, which will make discovery much worse.

        That said, this is the most packed year for VR ever for AA style releases. Batman. Behemoth. Wanderer. Metro Awakening. Alien: Rogue Incursion. Thrill of the Fight 2. We have a major new title each week for the next three months, and those are the AA titles, not including dozens of smaller releases.

        Also, the average VR dev team is less than 10. Having 100 on two titles is much more than needed. The issues with Hitman were scope, as the Quest just isn’t powerful enough to do all of the complex physics, AI, and level size interactions at scale.

        • VRDeveloper

          Ah yes, now I understand what you meant, thank you for explaining. I completely agree. The lack of curation really impacts sales negatively; that must be exactly why I’m so disappointed with their sales page lately.

          Now, regarding the scope of Hitman, it was really a lack of skill. Bonelabs and TWD works perfectly on Meta Quest 2 and has complex physical interactions. Besides, it's always possible to bypass limitations by creating new mechanisms; I do this frequently in my game too. I don’t think the hardware is as limited as most players think, but rather that it’s not being utilized enough. In any case, there’s a lot in that game that is simply outdated. That’s the point—it’s a poorly made game. A missed opportunity.

          • Octogod

            They changed sales too! You used to be invited and have a cap on discount accepted. Now, it’s like Steam where there is a sale and anyone can set a price. This means that every app will discount majorly in hopes to be seen. Curation to chaos.

            I agree on skill 100% and I agree the hardware limitations are not the true issue with most. Hitman needed another year of refinement, but we now see they were close to closing and this was a desperate play to bring in cash.

          • namekuseijin

            it's even worse than: barely anyone can agree on what's on sale. Doesn't seem to be a regional thing, some people in the same country don't see sales… I never saw sales anymore since early this year…

          • Octogod

            Would you mind sharing what country you live in? That is fascinating.

      • namekuseijin

        sales have been down since 2022 tbh… it's a pathetic shitshow and doesn't help that it happened precisely as the best Quest games ever have started hitting the market since late last year…

        it's a sad downfall

    • namekuseijin

      precisely

      to add to it: they allow Quest 2 owners to purchase Quest 3 exclusives – most of the 1 stars from Hitman are from such mad consumers who can't play the game, not spiteful shills

      expect the same onslaught of 1* for Batman too.

      Meta are out of their minds, Zuck looks and behaves like he's on meth waiting for WW3…

      • philingreat

        the reason why Quest 2 owners can purchase a Quest 3 exclusive title is because the studio set it up the wrong way in the meta store

      • Octogod

        I had no idea about that. How confusing!

        Luckily, Meta can delete the 1-star reviews and sometimes does for their first party games…

  • namekuseijin

    congrats minigame indie shills on your incessant crapping over all AAA ports so far

    not really exclusive to Hitman – from Skyrim to Grid Legends still been the same BS throughout. tho it doesn't help that a indie trying to port such a big game to very limited hardware would ensure technical issues compounded by an already cursed port. I don't think it'll be any different on psvr 2 – blurriness, wiggling controls will be the new excuses, you wait and see

    Anyway, rejoice. This tiny ridiculous, ever less profitable market drowning in crapware is now all yours, solo monkeboi devs

    • ViRGiN

      Medal of Honor was a decent game, especially given how old it is.
      Hitman? Hitman never stood a chance. No thanks. Nobody can excuse that. Every time there is a decently looking game, like Crossfire Sierra Squad, or even the Firewall Ultra, it's always completly f'd with some obvious VR nonsense attached. These companies, these games, these developers, they all killed/shut/fired themselves by their own dishonesty and complete detachment from what VR players actually want.

      Ghost of Tabor doubled it's revenue in about 6 months! To 20 millions! And that game has insane amount of jank and bugs.

      So don't slap Hitman name on dogshit and call it a product.

      Just like Onward devs getting fired by Zuckerberg, this is good move.

      • namekuseijin

        I'd rather play broken, janky Hitman over overhyped VR minigames and tech demos anyway…

        • ViRGiN

          I’d rather not play at all.

  • What a sad piece of news

  • VRDeveloper

    We're talking about something much deeper in American society

    I mean, suddenly companies start hiring activists, when in fact we needed more diversity, I agree with the point, but instead of hiring normal people, they hire activists, and fire normal people from companies, even if you are part of a minority.

    Do you know what all this smells like to me?

    Once again, the economic elite using their resources, burning money to make political propaganda, to put people in power who favor them economically.

    To think about it, big companies were caught investing directly in the extreme right, so suddenly they all decide to become left-wing activists and burn billions? And ignore the fact that the public doesn't like political propaganda inside games and movies? Think deeper, my dear.

    This is the elite forming in the collective imagination, chaos, and when the elections arrive, everyone will want a right-wing messiah to save America.

    I was going to write an article about it, but I think nowadays people wouldn't even read. So..