Last week it was finally confirmed that H1z1 would be heading to PlayStation 4 with a beta starting next month. Laying off staff ahead of a big launch seems a strange thing to do but that’s what Daybreak studios are going ahead with.
Daybreak confirms we are realigning our workforce to better position our company for the future. Because of this, we have had to make an extremely difficult decision to part ways with some of our employees across various disciplines at the studio.  We are doing everything we can to take care of each affected individual by providing them appropriate transition assistance.
Daybreak remains focused on publishing and developing large-scale online games and will continue to service our existing and long-standing games and franchises.
Daybreak have also been linked with Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, whose assets frozen the United States government last week. Daybreak originally stated that when Sony sold the company it was to Columbus Nova, which is a subsidiary of the Renova Group owned by Vekselberg.
“We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster of companies,” said Daybreak President John Smedley at the time.
Daybreak have now ‘clarified’ these statements by stating they were never owned by Columbus Nova. It seems a fairly large mistake to make, not knowing who owns you, but that’s what happened. Here is their statement:
We’re well aware of prior statements from Daybreak indicating our company was acquired by Columbus Nova. We have since clarified that the company was acquired by Jason Epstein when he was a partner at Columbus Nova, which he left in 2017. We’ve also taken steps to clarify those facts on our website and on third-party internet sites to ensure that all of the information currently made available is consistent and accurate.
As ever we wish those affected by the lay offs the best of luck finding new positions.
H1Z1’s player count has plummeted in the days of Forntite and PUBG, it used to have over 200,000 active players but now has around 7,000.
bunimomike
One of the biggest disappointments with Steam’s Early Access (for me). So much promise then they ditch the open-world PvE and PvP servers and just head for Hunger Games-style combat and that’s it. Not sure what they did from there as the game was dead to me. :-(
hunttete00
Like 1000 people played pve, and over 100,000 people played battle royale. The pve was shit.