Sim racing’s greatest soap opera storyline has taken another turn. Motorsport Games plans to lay off a large portion of its workforce.
It is perhaps more than fair to say that there is a very negative perception of Motorsport Games. The studio has been in control of the licences for the British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar and the 24 hours of Le Mans. They have promised standalone titles for each series.
However, Le Mans Ultimate is seemingly to be the only one materialising so far. The FIA WEC/Le Mans game is still looking at a release next month. But even if the game is successful, the reputation MSG has garnered may well prove difficult to overcome.
Now, more reason to feed those negative connotations. The Miami-based studio announces plans to lay off 40% of its workforce.
Motorsport Games Redundancies
In a recent SEC filing, there is a section called ‘Item 2.05 Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities’. The text beneath the heading, makes reference to workforce based predominantly in Australia and the United Kingdom.
The filing claims that the studio needs to reduce its operating costs, and that making them redundant would cost $500,000 at most. Motorsport Games reportedly outlined the plans on 29 October and it aims to complete the workforce lay offs in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.
This revelation comes not long after MSG sold the NASCAR console licence to iRacing. After acquiring 704Games who developed the NASCAR Heat 5 title that MSG published, the company went on to develop NASCAR 21: Ignition and NASCAR Rivals.
One must not forget the many disgruntled employees coming out claiming they had not been paid in time. This included one threatening to leak source code of NASCAR Heat 5, NASCAR 21: Ignition, KartKraft and the unreleased IndyCar game.
What do you make of this latest filing from Motorsport Games? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
