Swedish holding company Enad Global 7 has restructured two of its subsidiaries, Toadman Interactive and Piranha Games. It plans to “wind down” the former studio, and cut 38 employees at the latter, which has developed titles such as MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and MechWarrior 5: Clans.
In its Piranha announcement, Enad CEO Ji Ham revealed Clans sold “below expectations,” and stated the layoffs will “ensure [the studio] continues to operate with a sound profitability while being able to ship new content according to plan.”
“The team at Piranha truly delivered a high-quality game that exceeded both internal as well as external expectations,” he continued. “Despite the phenomenal work by the team at Piranha, the game failed to reach new audiences and expand its core audience as anticipated and therefore has not met the necessary sales targets, which has forced us to undertake necessary actions.”
Separately, level designer Julian Disterheft said this was Piranha’s second wave of layoffs since Clans’ release last October. In his post, he affirmed that sales for that title “just weren’t there to keep the studio at that size. Its a money in, money out situation and the money just wasn’t coming in.”
“Thanks to Piranha for the opportunity,” he wrote. “And huge shout out to the players of MechWarrior Online. Love you guys.”
Toadman was the original name for Enad, which was founded in 2013 as a work-for-hire studio. It rebranded in 2020 and assigned the Toadman name to one of its subsidiaries, which went on to be a support developer for Everquest, Planetside 2, and Warhammer Vermintide.
As for Enad, it gradually acquired the likes of Piranha, Daybreak Game Company (DC Universe Online), and Big Blue Bubble (Power Chord).
Last September, Toadman laid off around 100 contract and full-time employees after it’d completed support work on Helldivers 2 and Dead Island 2.
Shutting down Toadman “did not come lightly,” wrote Enad, which said comes after several cost-cutting measures and attempts to make the studio “profitable.” By ceasing its operations, Enad hopes this will help “deliver on [our] long-term strategy.” 69 employees will be let go, and the remaining 42 will be tasked with wrapping Toadman’s remaining work-for-hire projects with Daybreak and Cold Iron Studios.