GOG.com lays off staff amid claims of financial troubles

CD Projekt-owned digital distribution platform GOG.com has laid off around a dozen staff members, amidst claims the company may be suffering from financial issues.

Launched in open beta back in 2008 as Good Old Games, a digital distribution service originally focused on republishing out-of-print classics and a throwback to CD Projekt's origin as an importer, GOG.com has since branched out into triple-A titles and even non-gaming content. While the service has proven popular thanks to consumer-friendly refund policies and a promise that all titles are free from digital rights management (DRM) restriction, rumours have begun to circulate that the company's growth is outstripping its revenue - directly leading to the loss of around a dozen staff this month.

According to a former GOG.com staffer speaking to Kotaku, the layoffs accounted for around 10 percent of its overall staff and were the result of 'a financial decision. GOG's revenue couldn't keep up with growth,' the unnamed staffer claims, 'the fact that we're dangerously close to being in the red has come up in the past few months.'

Blaming a shift in the industry towards higher revenue shares for developers, which has seen the Epic Games Store launch on the promise of 88 percent of revenue for developers compared to GOG.com's standard split of 70 percent dropping to 60 percent if a cash advance on revenue is offered and accepted, the staffer suggests that this is the first time the company has experienced such heavy layoffs.

GOG.com, meanwhile, claims otherwise: The company has claimed that the layoffs are part of restructuring that has been ongoing since October 2018, but that it has 'welcomed nearly twice as many new team members, and currently hold 20 open positions' - news that will come as cold comfort to those who are now out of a job.

GOG.com's parent company CD Projekt is currently deep in development of ambitious open-world sci-fi role-playing title Cyberpunk 2077, which it began teasing way back in 2013 and last year confirmed would be making the switch from third- to first-person perspective.