PTW, A Support Studio That's Worked With Capcom And Blizzard, Lays Off 45 People

PTW, a support studio that's worked with some of the industry's biggest companies like Blizzard, Capcom, and Sega, has laid off about 45 people, as first reported by Kotaku. PTW was previously called Pole To Win and its services include quality assurance, studio support, and localization. Last week, on January 11, someone with knowledge of the studio told Kotaku about the layoffs, noting that roughly 45 people lost their jobs. 

The person with the knowledge of PTW also told the publication that the majority of those laid off live outside the United States – it has studios in North America, Europe, and Asia – and were QA workers. However, jobs were cut in other departments, too, Kotaku notes. 

«PTW made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce in several countries where we operate,» a PTW spokesperson told Kotaku. «This decision was not made lightly – Our company's core offerings stem from the people who enable us to deliver world-class products and services. We want to thank our departing team members for the time and effort they put into the company.» 

These layoffs join a large string of other job cuts that happened last week, following a terrible 2023 for the people who make games and those in game-adjacent industries. Last week, we learned Unity would be laying off 1800 people by the end of March, and that Twitch was laying off 500 employees. Discord also announced it had laid off 170 employees. 

In January of last year, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees amidst its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which it completed in October. 

Striking Distance Studios, the team behind 2022's The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees in August of 2023. That same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including long-time studio veterans. The following month, in September, Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios laid off roughly 45% of its staff, and Fortnite developer Epic Games laid off 830