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MTV Games Lays Off 39 Harmonix Employees

by Ben Reeves on Dec 10, 2009 at 12:53 PM

We had hoped that we’d heard the last of companies laying off employees for awhile, but today MTV Games announced 39 layoffs at Rock Band developer Harmonix Music Systems. All told, the layoffs represent roughly 13 percent of Harmonix staff, which likely make up portions of its QA department and support staff.

When asked if these layoffs had anything to do with The Beatles: Rock Band sales, MTV told joystiq.com “This was a process and business decision unrelated to the performance of any MTV Games / Harmonix product. MTV Games and Harmonix are very pleased with the sales of our Rock Band titles and we expect to continue to see strong sales throughout the holidays across all of our titles.” MTV’s crafty PR professional went on to say that these layoff were meant to restructure the company and align Harmonix “staffing to best suit our product development plans and schedules moving forward."

MTV Games reassured that "no future projects were affected by the restructuring."

We’re always sorry to hear when a studio losses some of its people.