Skydance Games Layoffs Follow $110 Billion Warner Bros. Takeover

Skydance has confirmed it is cutting jobs across its video game division, just over a month after completing its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal valued at $110 billion. The company announced the restructuring on Monday, November 9, saying it had scaled down some projects but declining to say how many people lost their jobs.

News of the layoffs surfaced over the weekend, when employees at the newly formed Paramount Games Studio began posting on LinkedIn that they had been let go. Skydance then confirmed the cuts in a statement, in which a spokesperson described reorganization and operational shifts across a few areas of the business.

Cuts Reach Established Franchises

The merged games group was assembled on October 6, when Skydance combined Paramount Games Studio with Warner Bros. Games' internal developers. The unit now oversees studios behind Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat, along with the Batman: Arkham and Lego titles, and holds properties ranging from Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants to Harry Potter and the DC Universe. Tony Driscoll was placed in charge of the combined games and experiences division.

The number of affected roles remains unconfirmed. One lead engineer named around 25 former colleagues in a LinkedIn post, a list that covered producers, writers, engineers, audio and level designers and a range of artists. A senior gameplay programmer said she kept her job but most of her team was let go. An associate design director also posted that he had been laid off and that several coworkers were affected. Early reports put the figure at 30 or more, and none of those identified so far appear to have come from the former Warner Bros. Games studios.

Skydance said the decision did not reflect the talent, dedication or creativity of the people leaving, and that it was committed to handling the process with transparency, care and respect. The company has not named the projects it is scaling back.

A $6 Billion Savings Target

The cuts were anticipated from the outset. A day one memo from chairman and chief executive David Ellison and co-chief executive Ynon Kreiz told staff that layoffs would form part of combining the two companies. The wider organization is seeking more than $6 billion in annual cost savings within three years, and has offered voluntary buyouts to some employees. Reports have indicated that executives expect most of the savings to come from areas outside staffing, such as real estate and combined streaming technology.

For workers in game development, the reductions add another entry to a difficult year for studio employment, and they land at a company that assembled some of the industry's best known teams only weeks earlier. Displaced producers, designers, artists and engineers are entering a market where many similar roles have been shed across large and small studios. The confirmation also signals that consolidation can bring short term uncertainty even for studios whose franchises remain commercially strong.

The cuts arrived on the same day that James Gunn and Peter Safran stepped down at DC Studios, another indication of how quickly the new owners are reshaping the business.

What to Watch Next

Skydance has not disclosed the size of the reduction, whether more cuts are planned, or which titles will be affected, and those details are likely to define how the division's slate develops into 2027. The company has said it will approach the process with care for departing staff. For now, the clearest signals will come from the projects it chooses to keep in production and from whether the voluntary buyout offers reduce the need for further involuntary cuts.