Reflector Entertainment Begins Mass Layoffs After 'Unknown 9: Awakening' Utterly Fails
Reflector Entertainment began mass laying off its employees in the wake of Unknown 9: Awakening commercially and financially failing.
As originally reported by Smash JT, numerous employees for Reflector Entertainment revealed they were laid off within the past 24 hours and are now seeking work.
One former employee, a Dev QA Tester, Leigh Desormeau, who has the rainbow flag in her banner image and claims to use they/them pronouns posted on LinkedIn, “Hi everyone! I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below. I’d love to reconnect.”
Sean D., who was a Lighting Artist at Reflector, also posted, “Hi everyone, Sadly, I've been affected by the layoffs at Reflector Entertainment and I’m currently on a lookout for a new role as a Lighting Artist.”
Kyrie Holton, who also uses They/Them pronouns wrote on LinkedIn, “Hi everyone - I am looking for a new role in the Games Industry, either continuing my career in DevQA, or taking advantage of my training in Unreal Engine to begin in a Development role. Thank you in advance for any connections, advice, or opportunities you can offer.”
Holton added, “As you may already know, I am in the Montreal/South Shore area, and prefer to work remotely if possible.”
The company’s Brand Manager Manou Deneuvel also wrote on LinkedIn, “Hi everyone. I was affected by the layoffs at Reflector Entertainment, and I’m seeking a new role in Marketing or Social Media/Community Management, effective immediately. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please reach out.”
Benjamin McDonald, who also uses they/them pronouns, and was an Intermediate UI Programmer posted on LinkedIn, “Hi everyone - I am looking for a new role effective immediately and would appreciate your support! Thank you in advance for any connections, advice, or opportunities you can offer.”
Casey Hallis, who was a Game Designer who worked at Reflector for nearly 3 years, revealed he was let go as well. He wrote on Linkedin, “After nearly 3 years at Reflector as a Game Designer, it is time to move on. Looking for a brand new adventure with awesome people. In need of a game designer? Contact me!”
In a blog post, the company’s General Manager Marc-André Séguin revealed that it was “reducing our team by approximately 18% of Reflector’s total workforce.”
As for why the layoffs were happening, Séguin stated, “Today’s announcement isn’t driven by commercial success or external pressures, but stems instead from our current reality, which is that at this time, we cannot guarantee tangible work for all of the talented individuals we employ.”
He added, “With the recent release of Unknown 9: Awakening and our two key production lines entering the early stages of development, we must make sure that our staff is laser-focused on contributing to the projects that wholly benefit from their skillsets.”
Later in the post, Séguin said, “This shift will allow us to take the necessary time to refine our processes and perfect our upcoming projects so that we can deliver experiences that are both meaningful and memorable for players.”
While Séguin claims the workforce reduction is not driven by commercial success or external pressures, it comes less than two months after the company released Unknown 9: Awakening, which only achieved an all-time peak concurrent player count of just 285 the day after it released on October 18th.
In fact, in the last 24-hours the game only achieved a peak concurrent of just 39 players.
The poor player counts came in the wake of the game being openly boycotted by numerous gamers after it was revealed that Reflector not only employed Sweet Baby Inc. co-founder David Bedard, but it had contracted with the company’s CEO Kim Belair to be a story architect.
Bedard and Belair’s involvement were confirmed by The Shorty Awards that listed their credits on the entire branded project for Unknown 9.
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