NCsoft Confirms Austin Layoffs

NCsoft is letting go 21 employees from product development in its Austin offices, the company confirmed today. The developer-publisher, known for titles such as Guild Wars, Dungeon Runners and Tabula Rasa, told consumer blog Kotaku that widely-reported media rumors of layoffs at the offices were true. "Primarily this is related to products which we have not previously announced and were in prototype phases," an NCsoft spokesperson told the site. NCsoft said, however, that it's also cutting staff from the Dungeon Runners team following a decision not to port the client to other platforms "at this time." The company yesterday revealed that profits fell 42 percent in its second fiscal quarter due to a lack of new products in the last few months, in addition to higher advertising and outsourcing costs. The Austin development industry also saw layoffs yesterday from publisher Midway, who confirmed it had let go between 90 and 130 employees from its studio there due to a project cancellation.