nDreams opens new studio to focus on "young VR natives"
nDreams has closed two studios and opened a new one as part of its restructuring, while Sidequest has announced layoffs.
In September, nDreams announced layoffs of up to 17.5 percent of its workforce. The company has now said that it has closed two of its four internal VR studios and formed a new VR studio called Compass.
The nDreams Studio and the nDreams Studio Orbital have been closed. 40 employees from these VR studios are now part of Compass, while the rest have been laid off. This leaves three internal studios: Compass, Near Light and Elevation.
Compass is led by Callum Godfrey, who previously worked at Activision and EA and was involved in major franchises as Call of Duty and Operation Flashpoint.
The new studio will focus on the "growing audience of young VR natives". The launch of Compass therefore comes in the context of changing market conditions, one of the many causes of the current wave of layoffs in the VR industry.
Meta recently confirmed in a blog post that the trend is going towards young users who prefer free-to-play titles to premium games. Meta urged developers to see this growing user base as an opportunity, and nDreams seems to have taken the advice. Compass is fully focused on developing titles for "a new generation of VR gamers," according to studio head Callum Godfrey.
Since last September, Fast Travel Games, Soul Assembly Toast Interactive, XR Games, and nDreams have all announced drastic layoffs.
Yesterday, UploadVR reported that sideloading platform Sidequest is also planning layoffs. It is not yet known how many employees are affected.
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