A video game development company that has worked on major titles including Call of Duty, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Borderlands, has terminated the contracts of several local employees as part of a series of massive layoffs dating back to last Summer.
Lost Boys Interactive, LLC, made the announcement on Thursday, January 11, in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the Florida Department of Commerce.
According to the notice, the company says it will terminate 125 employees across the U.S. and Canada. In Central Florida, the layoffs include two employees from Orlando, one from Mount Dora, and one from Deltona.
Employees are expected to be “separated from employment beginning March 15, 2024,” according to the filing.
The company gave no reason behind the layoffs in its filing, but says it expects the move to be “permanent.”
Based in Wisconsin, Lost Boys Interactive was acquired by Embracer-subsidiary Gearbox in 2022. Embracer is a video game and media holding company based in Karlstad, Sweden.
According to the Lost Boys website, the business currently employs over 400 employees across North America.
In the Summer of 2023, Embracer made public statements regarding the company’s spending for mergers and acquisitions.
At the time, CEO Lars Wingfors said the organization would shut down or downsize a collection of its studios that were projected to produce lower returns.
In addition to the terminations in the Orlando-area, two other employees were terminated in Florida.