Harmonix has confirmed that a restructuring plan is underway at the studio, which will see the layoffs of 37 employees and significant changes to its leadership team.
Company co-founder Alex Riogopulos will step down from the CEO position and take on the role of chief creative officer. Head of publishing and business operations, Steve Janiak, will replace him as CEO.
“Harmonix is in the process of restructuring our organization to bring it into alignment with our current and future product development plans,” a spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, this means making the difficult decision to reduce the number of full-time staff. We sincerely appreciate the work of each and every one of these employees. Harmonix is working to ensure that those affected are well taken care of as we make this change.”
According to Harmonix, the studio’s changes won’t affect the games currently in development including Fantasia: Music Evolved and the Kickstarter-funded Amplitude. However, the studio has ended its alpha testing for free-to-play shooter Chroma.
“Based on the terrific feedback we got from all of you in the community, as well as our own analysis, we have concluded that Chroma will need some substantial retooling to be the game we want it to be,” the company said. “We remain passionately committed to the high-level vision, and we think there are some very successful mechanics and systems in the existing build. The team has, in fact, already started prototyping new directions for the game based on those successful mechanics. We look forward to sharing with you down the line, as Chroma evolves in new directions.”
(via GI International)