After the $110 billion deal, Skydance began laying off employees in its gaming divisions

Skydance began laying off employees at Paramount Games and Skydance Interactive shortly after merging with Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal worth $110 billion. The company did not disclose the exact number of affected employees: workers themselves reported losing their jobs, and one executive listed 25 colleagues by name. That list, however, does not necessarily reflect the overall scale of the layoffs.

Employees of gaming teams reported layoffs

The employees’ LinkedIn posts were noted by the publication Vertical Slice. Among those who reported being laid off was David Ballard, who served as deputy director of design at Paramount Games. He wrote that his work at Skydance and Paramount had ended, and noted that several of his colleagues were also affected by the cuts. His post confirms layoffs in the gaming division, but provides no figures on how many people lost their jobs or which teams were affected.

Paramount Games’ chief engineer, David Vera, also described what was happening in a post. He said that Skydance had lost many talented people and mentioned 25 names. These names give an idea of the number of colleagues he chose to identify, but do not mean the list is complete or a final tally of layoffs. Vera did not report the total number of employees affected on the teams.

According to the available information, most employees whose posts are related to the cuts worked at Paramount Games or Skydance Interactive. The source does not provide a breakdown by role, studio, region, or individual project. It is therefore not yet possible to determine whether the changes primarily affected developers, managers, administrative groups, or several areas at once.

The number of layoffs and the scale of the changes have not been disclosed

The employees’ posts confirm that this was not a single isolated layoff: Ballard himself mentioned colleagues, and Vera listed 25 people. But neither these posts nor the Vertical Slice article establishes the exact number of people laid off. Vera’s list cannot automatically be treated as the overall total, since the original information separately notes that more people may have been affected by the cuts.

It is also unknown whether the layoffs happened at the same time or were part of several successive decisions. There is no information about which specific divisions will continue operating with their previous staffing, how many employees will remain at Paramount Games and Skydance Interactive, or whether the teams’ responsibilities have changed. These gaps matter: without them, individual employees’ posts show that people lost their jobs, but do not provide a complete picture of the internal reorganization.

At the time the reports appeared, the company had not published official figures or a detailed explanation of the layoffs in the material described. Any more precise estimates of the number of people laid off or the distribution of cuts across teams would therefore be speculative.

The cuts follow cost-cutting measures

The layoffs took place amid Skydance’s cost-cutting policy. Earlier, the company required employees to work from the office all five days of the workweek and offered some employees a voluntary separation program. The new reports indicate cuts directly within the gaming division.

These measures belong to the same general period of change, but the source does not explain how they are connected. It is unknown how many employees accepted the voluntary departure offer, what the terms of the program were, or whether it overlapped with the subsequent layoffs. Voluntary departures and company-directed layoffs should therefore be distinguished: the available information does not allow us to say that they involved the same employees.

The fact that the cuts coincided with a cost-saving policy does not, by itself, explain decisions regarding specific roles. Skydance did not provide a separate justification for the layoffs at Paramount Games and Skydance Interactive in the material described. There is also no information that would establish whether the cuts were directly caused by the completion of the deal or by changes to the structure of the gaming business.

Gaming teams are being brought together under the Skydance Games brand

At the same time, Skydance is restructuring its gaming division. After acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, including Warner Bros. Games, the company brought its gaming teams together under the name Skydance Games. Tony Driscoll, president of the games and interactive entertainment division, said they would work as “one team” and create “bigger, bolder worlds for fans to explore.”

This statement describes the stated principle behind the consolidation, but does not disclose practical details: no timeline for the restructuring, division of responsibilities among the former divisions, or projects that will come under joint management have been specified. The introduction of a shared brand does not in itself mean that studios are closing, games are being canceled, or all developers are being brought together in one physical team.

The layoffs at Paramount Games and Skydance Interactive are happening at the same time as the gaming divisions are being consolidated, but the published information does not confirm a direct causal link between these processes. Nor is there confirmation that the layoffs affected Warner Bros. Games. The acquisition of that division is mentioned as part of the context for the new structure, not as a list of teams where cuts took place.

The impact on projects has not yet been disclosed

The practical impact of the staffing changes on games remains unknown. The available reports contain no announcements about project cancellations, release delays, changes to support plans, or studio closures. Nor do they name the games the laid-off specialists had been working on. There is therefore no basis yet for linking the cuts to the fate of any specific project.

At this point, employees’ reports of losing their jobs at Paramount Games and Skydance Interactive have been confirmed, as has the consolidation of Skydance’s gaming teams under the Skydance Games brand. The company has not clarified the exact number of people laid off, the full list of affected divisions, or the possible impact on development.