ByteDance reportedly lays off hundreds from its gaming business

Chinese tech titan ByteDance has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees from its gaming business, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

As reported by the South China Morning Post today, sources said that the majority of the workforce at ByteDance’s Shanghai-based game developer Wushuang Studio have been either laid off or transferred to the company’s other parts. 

In addition, ByteDance also reportedly have laid off employees at Jiangnan Studio, its Hangzhou-based game developer. 

Sources claimed that the company will continue its gaming operations in its Shanghai office, and mainly focus on the improvement of its existing games rather than creating new ones. 

The TikTok-owner has been heavily investing in its game business over the last few years. The company was reorganized into six units in 2021, with its video games unit Nuverse being one of them. Through Nuverse, the company also acquired Chinese-game studios Moonton and C4games last year. 

Recently, ByteDance’s TikTok has also started testing HTML5 mini-games, for which the company has partnered with various game developers such as Voodoo, FRVR, Nitro Games, Lotem and AimLab.