On Tuesday, video game retailer GameStop revealed to have laid off roughly a hundred employees based at the company’s headquarters in Grapevine, Texas. Also affected was gaming publication Game Informer, owned and published by GameStop Corp. In an official statement, a GameStop spokesperson told Kotaku:
“As part of the previously announced GameStop Reboot initiative to transform our business for the future and improve our financial performance, we can confirm a workforce reduction was implemented impacting more than 120 corporate staff positions, representing approximately 14% of our total associate base at our company headquarters as well as at some other offices,” GameStop’s statement explains. “While these changes are difficult, they were necessary to reduce costs and better align the organization with our efforts to optimize the business to meet our future objectives and success factors. We recognize that this is a difficult day for our company and particularly for those associates impacted.”
As a result of the decision, nearly half of the Game Informer editorial staff were let go. Those affected include Managing Editor Matt Bertz, Senior Associate Editor Kyle Hilliard, and West Coast Editor Imran Khan, to name a few.
Following the news of the hit to Game Informer’s staff, Editor-in-Chief Andy McNamara published a response on the publication’s website.
“I’m saddened by yesterday’s news; the Game Informer team means the world to me. You, our readers who have supported us over the years – mean the world to us. I can’t thank them or you enough.“
It has been a rough past few years for GameStop, with the steady rise of the digital game market continuing to overtake physical discs and cartridges. As of this writing, the company’s stock price is down to $3.84, a nearly $44 a share decline from August 2015.
Source: Kotaku
