New volley of layoffs reaches Red 5

Following on yesterday's news that Firefall developer Red 5 Studios would be temporarily shutting down its player-versus-player servers, citing a low attract rate for its "controversial eSports route," the company announced today that it would be laying off 10 percent of its staff in a new restructuring effort. Red 5 last went through a round of layoffs under the banner of reorganization in January 2010. At the time, around 30 people were let go. Red 5 has not specified how much today's layoff of 10 percent translates into numbers but our estimates place the number of affected workers around 10. Red 5 says the "majority" of the affected staff this time are from the company's web channel, Stage 5 TV. "As Firefall matures, we must transition our priorities and our development strategy to focus on streamlined operations and live product support," company co-founder and CEO Mark Kern said in a statement.