Despite shipping over 5 million copies of Mafia 3, Hangar 13 has had layoffs enacted by 2K. They have confirmed the news with GameSpot and Kotaku Thursday.
They said to GameSpot, “2K can confirm that there have been staff reductions at Hangar 13 in order to ensure that the studio’s resources are properly aligned with its long-term development plans,”
However, they also mentioned that the “reductions will not influence 2K’s ability to create and deliver its products that are currently in development. We never take these matters lightly, and are working with the affected employees to support them and explore potential opportunities throughout our organization.”
We have not been told how many people exactly have been let go. GameSpot followed up on the story reported by Kotaku, who said that a reduction of a “significant number of staff” has been made at the studio. Kotaku has received the same report from 2K since. GameSpot reports that Hangar 13’s staff count “was in the neighborhood of 150 people.”
Mafia 3 released on October 7th, 2016 and was 2K Games’ fastest selling game ever (via Polygon) with over 4.5 million copies sold in a week, despite its critical panning. Borderlands 2, however, remains as its highest selling title. 2K also offered a season pass for the game and it came with 3 expansions. Faster, Baby! had you partnering with Roxy Laveau to bring justice to Sheriff “Slim” Beaumont and his gang, Stones Unturned had the player joining CIA agent John Donovan to stop a blood feud in Vietnam, and Sign of the Times had you going after a cult and stopping them from doing killing rituals in the inner city.
Parent company of 2K, Take Two Interactive, currently has plans to release Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 this October for PS4 and Xbox One.
