Daybreak Game Company lays off 70 employees

The latest two or three years haven't been too kind on Daybreak Game Company. The publisher of the PlanetSide and EverQuest series is going through some rough times and the recent news aren't exactly encouraging.

Daybreak seems to have laid off around 70 employees this week. The number was advanced by former Daybreak president John Smedley on Twitter. Smedley first said that ““70 people is a lot”, going on to add the following in another tweet: “Very sorry to hear about the layoffs at Daybreak. Those are good people that should still be working there 10 years from now if things were being well run.”

Smedley concluded with a third tweet saying: “Really, really, really angry right now. It’s December FFS and this is how you treat employees @DaybreakGames come on.”

Daybreak had this official comment to say:

“We are optimizing our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time. As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles.”

There is no way of knowing how this will affect Daybreak's future, which has seen several rumors about games in development, the latest one being a PlanetSide Arena, but there were talks of EverQuest 3 as well. As for the current titles, let's see if the studio manages to keep them alive and well.

Best of luck to all of those affected by the layoffs.