The continuing reorganisation and streamlining at Scandinavian gaming giant NetEnt has seen its first job cuts with 55 employees at the company’s Stockholm head office set to lose their positions.
In a short statement, NetEnt said it is “taking action to optimise its operations” amid plans to scale up its game production line.
“Now, the company streamlines and restructures the organisation, which leads to staff reductions in Stockholm. The reorganisation is expected to result in non-recurring costs of approximately SEK25m (€2.42m), which will be booked in the fourth quarter of 2018.”
The 55 full-time jobs to go are mostly in Stockholm, the company said, and within corporate support functions.
“The changes are taking place during December and will lead to a reallocation of resources to increased game production.”
The company is also axing a virtual reality project – NetEnt said that SEK5m (€480,000) of the loss related to a “write-down of intangible assets regarding a development project in the area of virtual reality”.
Therese Hillman, Group CEO of NetEnt, said: “By decentralising our operations we take another step towards a new NetEnt, where customers and players are in focus.
“The new organisation will have clearer responsibilities and more emphasis on value-creating initiatives. We are pleased to see the performance of our new game releases so far in the fourth quarter as we continue to diversify our game portfolio.
“Going forward, we increase the pace of output and expect to release 30 to 35 new games in 2019,” said Hillman