Kotaku: Dozens of Naughty Dog employees will not receive contract extensions

American developer Naughty Dog has not extended the contracts of several dozen employees, according to two people involved. These employees would not be permanent employees, but would work for the developer under contract.

The sources report opposite Kotaku that it involved at least 25 employees, the majority of whom worked for the quality control department. There were also reports of layoffs in the art production department. As far as we know, none of the permanent employees have been dismissed. The former employees’ contracts do not officially expire until the end of October and Naughty Dog is not giving these employees any form of severance pay, according to the sources. The company is reportedly asking employees not to disclose anything about the layoffs.

In the wake of the layoffs at Naughty Dog Bloomberg reported earlier this year that the development of the multiplayer spin-off of The Last of Us was difficult. A day later, Naughty Dog itself said that the game has been postponed internally. No official release date has been announced so far.

Layoffs have been happening throughout the gaming industry for a year now. Less than a week ago it was announced that Epic Games had to lay off about 16 percent of its staff. Worms publisher Team17, Halo maker 343 Industries and Total War developer Creative Assembly were also affected by this trend.