Multiplatform casual game developer Oberon Media will no longer be creating games in-house, which will result in a loss of jobs, according to an interview with Oberon’s CEO and president, Bob Hayes. Oberon will continue to turn out externally developed games through the company’s i-Play brand. Although many of the developers facing possible layoffs are in Seattle, Hayes made assurances that many of these employees would be reassigned to new tasks, such as working with external game developers.
Oberon appears to be making market-related adjustments to remain ahead of the curve as the browser-based online games market continually grows more competitive and more profitable.
New York-based Oberon attracts more than 30 million visitors, who play from a catalog of more than 3,000 games across 150 partner websites. Oberon’s internal game development teams have created 10 of those games annually since starting to create games about six years ago. The company currently employs 380 staff members.
Hayes concedes that losing an internal development team creating exclusive projects has played into Oberon’s success, but the diverse pool of third-party developers the company works with would be an asset, and even more so as they reach out to the external game development community.
[Source: VentureBeat]
