DreamWorks Animation has confirmed that the studio is laying off 4% of its workforce. The studio says the roles affected include various corporate employees, TV and technology department workers and animations and designers.
This 4% cut results in around 70 staff losing their jobs. The studio says that the layoffs have been done as an overall cost reduction.
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DreamWorks has also announced that as part of cost-cutting measures, the company is shifting away from production in-house. It will rely on third-party studios to assist with animation and other creative processes.
DreamWorks has confirmed that the company has signed deals with third-party studios such as Sony Pictures Imageworks to work on upcoming films. Imageworks is Sony’s main animation studio which worked on recent titles such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Hotel Transylvania and also produced animated films for Netflix such as Over the Moon and The Sea Beast.
The layoffs join dozens of other companies which have followed cost-cutting measures and retrenched staff as a result. This includes Epic Games, Google, HBO, Spotify, Electronic Arts, Meta (with around 10,000 workers), Disney, Amazon (with over 27,000 workers), Microsoft, and many others.
2023 has been the year of layoffs for many companies with tech brands and video game studios suffering more than before. Layoffs have also started to hit production companies and studios following the recent and ongoing SAG and actors’ union strikes.
Source: Deadline
