MechWarrior studio Piranha Games lays off 30% of its employees

Russ Bullock, the CEO of MechWarrior developer Piranha Games, has confirmed that the studio has imposed layoffs, saying that roughly 30% of its employees have been let go.

The layoffs first came to light on LinkedIn (via GamesIndustry), where multiple employees reported being let go; at least two of them said the layoffs came as part of an "economic restructuring" at the company. While Piranha itself hasn't made any announcement about the layoffs, Bullock confirmed the cuts in posts on X.

"Not accurate," Bullock wrote in response to a claim that 60% of the studio had been let go. "It was 30% of the staff which was a horrible day no doubt but we do still continue to work on DLC."

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Bullock told PC Gamer that 17 employees were let go in this round of layoffs, but said the MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries DLC it announced in March is still slated for launch in May.

"We are also working on another MW product for release this fall," Bullock said. "Tough week but we continue to adapt to the significant changes in our industry and continue to ship ever-improving products.

"No doubt it is more difficult each year to see very far down the road and what might be in store, but for now we continue to develop and release products we're proud of."

The longer-term future of MechWarrior, at least in its current iteration, seems less certain, however. "I honestly don't know how long we will be able to keep the ship sailing," MechWarrior 5: Clans narrative director Chris Lowrey wrote in another thread confirming the cuts.

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"It's been a small miracle that Mercs has received five years of post-launch support as it is. (Very few other single point of purchase games get that amount of post-launch support in our industry.) But those of us still around are still committed to continue support of MechWarrior as long as we're allowed to do so."

(Image credit: Chris Lowrey (Twitter))

This is the second round of layoffs at Piranha in just over a year—parent company Enad Global 7 laid off 38 Piranha employees in January 2025, just a few months after the release of MechWarrior 5: Clans. We gave Clans an 82% score in our review, saying it "delivers a strong story of struggling young warriors alongside the best-ever version of its iconic, lumbering mech combat," but Piranha parent company Enad Global 7 said it "failed to reach new audiences and expand its core audience as anticipated and therefore has not met the necessary sales targets," which resulted in the layoffs.