Disney Interactive confirms job cuts

Three studios affected

View more images

30 January 2009 17:27 GMT / By Verity Burns

In more depressive recession news, Disney Interactive Studios has become the latest company to cut jobs as a way to save some money.

Angela Emery, vice president of communications at Disney Interactive Studios, has confirmed the layoffs will take place, but seemingly not to the extent first expected.

The developer behind Turok, Propaganda Games, will see 30 staff cut, with no details given as to whether this will mean a cancellation of Turok 2. However Emery did confirm that Propaganda remained a two-team development studio that is currently working on two unannounced projects.

The other redundancies will be caused by some studio restructuring. Fall Line Studio and Avalanche, both situated in Salt Lake City in Utah, will be consolidated into one.

Apparently this will cause "less than 20" employees to be made redundant in a move that Emery has said will help put "Wii and Nintendo development at the forefront" as well as giving Avalanche some "additional development capacities". She also added that the Wii was an important platform for Disney.

To finish, Emery stressed that all other Disney Interactive studios, such as Black Rock and Junction Point, would not be affected by the job cuts.

Internal communication forwarded to remaining employees of Disney Interactive from Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group expressed regret at the layoffs and confirmed that directors would not be receiving "merit increases" this year.