“The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members’ jobs,” the guild says. “This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work.”
An employee in the engineering department was also laid off, Hunter Paniagua, a representative of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents the IGN Creators Guild, tells The Verge.
Ziff Davis didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Last year, across all of Ziff Davis, the company employed approximately 3,800 people, according to an SEC filing.
Last year, IGN acquired the website portfolio of Gamer Network, which includes publications like Eurogamer, Gamesindustry.biz, and Rock Paper Shotgun. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed at the time.
“The company has not responded to the union’s questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts,” the IGN Creators Guild says.
