Acquired by Splash Damage Just Three Months After Major Layoffs, SCUM Developer Gamepires Is Now Cutting Its Own Team
Just eight months after being absorbed into the newly formed Splash Damage Group, Croatian developer Gamepires has announced a round of layoffs at its Zagreb studio. The creators of the open-world multiplayer survival game SCUM are now downsizing their workforce in a move that has sparked pointed questions across the industry, given that their British parent company acquired them barely three months after conducting sweeping layoffs of its own.
Gamepires Confirms Staff Reductions Across the SCUM Team in Zagreb
Founded in Zagreb in 2010 by Tomislav Pongrac and Andrej Levenski, Gamepires previously employed more than 65 specialists dedicated to expanding its flagship survival title. In an official statement shared on its social media channels and echoed by affected developers on LinkedIn, studio leadership confirmed that an undisclosed number of roles have been eliminated:
"A difficult decision has been made to reduce the size of the Gamepires team, which means saying goodbye to colleagues who've helped shape SCUM and the studio. This step is necessary to help Gamepires adapt to challenging market conditions and long-term sustainability."
Management emphasized that the departures are strictly business-driven and have no bearing on the quality of work or dedication of the departing developers. For players, Gamepires stated that post-launch support for SCUM (which exited seven years of Steam Early Access into version 1.0 on June 17, 2025) remains active, with hotfixes and content updates continuing as planned.
From Leaving Tencent to Emona Capital's Buyout: Splash Damage's Turbulent Timeline
What makes the downsizing at Gamepires particularly striking is the recent corporate trajectory of its parent company, UK-based developer Splash Damage (known for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Dirty Bomb, and Gears Tactics). Over the past twenty-two months, the Bromley studio has undergone a rapid succession of ownership changes and workforce cuts:
- January 8, 2025: While still owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent (which acquired Splash Damage parent Leyou Technologies in 2020), Splash Damage cancelled its co-op action project Transformers: Reactivate and enacted an initial wave of job cuts.
- September 25, 2025: Splash Damage completed its separation from Tencent through a private-equity buyout backed by investment firm Emona Capital.
- November 26, 2025: Just two months after going independent, Splash Damage placed all roles across the studio into a formal UK redundancy consultation process, stating the cuts were required to "remain agile and adaptable in what has been a very challenging market."
- February 26, 2026: Exactly three months after initiating those studio-wide layoffs, Splash Damage and Emona Capital acquired Gamepires from British publisher Jagex (which had bought the Croatian studio in December 2022) to establish the Splash Damage Group under CEO Ben Hopkinson, formerly Splash Damage's CFO.
When the acquisition closed in February 2026, the creation of the Splash Damage Group was pitched as a growth vehicle designed to scale the SCUM franchise alongside co-development partnerships and new original IP. Eight months later, the Zagreb subsidiary has been handed the exact same restructuring playbook as its parent studio. The turbulence mirrors broader pressures hitting mid-sized studios across the market, from the recent layoffs at Undead Labs during the State of Decay 3 restructuring to Ramen VR's permanent server shutdown for Zenith amid rising live-service costs.
My Take
It is hard not to feel cynical looking at the financial choreography behind the Splash Damage Group. Placing your entire UK staff under redundancy consultation in late November 2025 in the name of staying "agile," lining up private equity capital with Emona Capital three months later to buy Gamepires off Jagex, and then laying off the very developers who carried SCUM across the 1.0 finish line eight months after that encapsulates everything frustrating about private-equity-driven consolidation. When nearly identical corporate statements about "challenging market conditions" bracket a major studio acquisition, it is always the developers on the studio floor who end up paying the price.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles 'Grimtag' Ronchain is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
