'Dead Rising' News: Capcom Vancouver Lays Off Workers for Next Series Title
Reports have come in that Capcom Vancouver has recently downsized its staff and laid off around 50 people in an effort to lower the scope of the next "Dead Rising," a game failed to get any real attention.
According to an insider source from Kotaku, about 50 people lost their jobs at Capcom Vancouver as a part of reorganizing the company for the next "Dead Rising" title that was reportedly "over-scoped and under-staffed."
Destructoid then followed up on the topic and asked Capcom for an official statement on the matter and to confirm whether or not the rumors are true.
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"Capcom Vancouver has undergone a restructure which has impacted approximately 30 percent of the studio, as part of its regular periodic assessment of upcoming projects and overall studio goals," the Capcom representative said. "The team is continuing to work hard to support the recent release of Puzzle Fighter for mobile and is dedicated to its flagship Dead Rising series."
According to the company's LinkedIn page, Capcom Vancouver has, or had, about 250 employees. With the official statement claiming that around 30 percent of people were laid off, that is a pretty close estimation to the original 50 that was reported by the insider source.
Capcom Vancouver is the team that has been behind every "Dead Rising" game after the first one, which was instead developed by Capcom Japan. While it was once a fairly popular series and one of the staples on the Xbox ecosystem, each new title has seemingly done worse than the last with the most recent one, "Dead Rising 4," sitting at a 72 percent average on Metacritic.
One interesting thing to note is that each new series entry seemed larger than the one before it, especially with the size of the map, and yet they would get lower and lower reviews. Perhaps this downsizing is a good thing. Perhaps this is what the company needs to get back on its feet and manage to push out a new entry in the series that can harken back to the original one in terms of quality and public reception.
