I-Play streamlining leads to redundancies

I-Play has made a number of redundancies, GamesIndustry.biz has learned, the result of an effort on the part of the company to streamline the business and stem rising development costs - despite claims only a few months ago that such a move would be unlikely.

A number of jobs will be moving from the UK to Eastern Europe as part of the company's off-shore drive, to I-Play's existing studio in Bucharest, Romania. Parent company Oberon additionally acquired two new studios in the region yesterday, GamesIndustry.biz exclusively revealed earlier.

Now, David Gosen, CEO of I-Play, has spoken to GamesIndustry.biz on the subject and explained that for the company to remain successful, it needed to pursue "opportunities and synergies for us to really find a way to look at the costs of the business."

"As we continue to drive the top lines through new licenses, we have to look at the cost base of the business - and the acquisition by Oberon does provide us with integration opportunities."

He went on to add that rising costs are a concern which everybody has to deal with: "As we look at the industry, I think there's an industry challenge here."

"The cost of developing is increasing, the number of devices that we have to cover increases, the demands of the carrier continue to increase, and as a successful business in order to scale and grow we have to truly ensure that we have the solid foundation for that future growth, in a way that we continue to be successful as a business."

Exact details on the redundancies weren't confirmed, although some sources have made as-yet-unsubstantiated claims that the Dunfermline and Macclesfield offices were affected by the cuts.

The news follows on from original hopes at the beginning of June, when I-Play was acquired by Oberon, that no redundancies would be required.

At the time, Oberon boss Tomer Ben-Kiki told GamesIndustry.biz that job cuts were unlikely: "There is little overlap of functional teams given the size of Oberonâs existing mobile operations and expect no significant organisational changes."

However, the latest acquisitions by the Oberon, coupled with the increasing development costs, seem to have changed the picture.