Smilegate Barcelona reportedly closed and all employees let go

Smilegate Barcelona, the studio established in 2020 to develop an open-world AAA console title, has reportedly been closed.

That’s according to director Stephane Blais – formerly of Eidos Montreal and Ubisoft – who claimed on his LinkedIn page that all employees are set to be let go from the European arm of the Korean Crossfire company.

“As our industry is starting to look more and more like a game of Battleship, it is our turn to be hit,” he wrote. “Smilegate Barcelona is closing down. All employees are being laid off.

“The last 6 months have been pretty intense – but allowed me to discover a fantastic and really dedicated team. All of them work so hard to try to save it. I am now #OpenToWork”.

Blais was previously a narrative design director on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and narrative director for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 5.

Edouard Albert, a project manager at Smilegate Barcelona, also posted suggesting the studio had closed.

“Well our journey at Smilegate Barcelona has come to an end,” they wrote. “Really appreciated my time there, working with amazing people and being able to improve on my own skill set. Now is time to look for my next adventure.”

VGC has asked Smilegate for comment on this story and will update it when we receive a response.

It’s estimated that around 10,500 game industry employees were laid off last year. And less than three months into 2024, some 8,000 planned jobs cuts are already thought to have been confirmed.

The GDC State of the Game Industry survey found that around a third of developers were impacted by layoffs at their workplace over the 12 months ended in October 2023.

Asked how concerned they were about layoffs over the following 12 months to October 2024, 14% of the 3000+ respondents said they were very concerned, 16% said they were somewhat concerned, and 26% said they were slightly concerned.