As Le Mans Ultimate continues through its early access cycle, including a DLC season pass, Traxion understands several team members have lost their jobs at Motorsport Games and Studio 397.
The reduction in workforce size has been a continual theme for the Miami-headquartered outfit over the past 24 months.
In September 2022, former MSG CEO Dmitry Kozko initiated what was then termed a “transformative restructuring plan.” This was in the wake of an underwhelming NASCAR 21: Ignition game.
Since then, sporadic cuts have continued under current Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood, who was appointed as the lead in April 2023.
This follows the vast majority of its US employee base being jettisoned across 2023, the cancellation of an IndyCar game project in November of last year – resulting in the abandonment of its Australian studio – plus further cuts across European-based roles in 2024.
Today’s losses include people who worked for the aforementioned parent company Motorsport Games – which acts as a quasi-publisher and management suite for LMU – and the Studio 397 game development team.
That team’s Head of Studio, Dom Duhan, departed in February. Former FIA World Endurance Championship CEO and Senior Advisor to the Le Mans Virtual Series, Gerard Neveu, has announced he will be joining the exotic automotive brand duPont Registry as CEO of dR Events.
“I’ve received a letter about restructuring and the risk of redundancy. I don’t have any more information at this time, but needless to say, I’m looking for new roles,” said one senior Studio 397 team member yesterday, via LinkedIn.
Traxion understands that following the initial notification on 2nd October, redundancies were then carried out earlier today, 3rd October, across quality assurance (QA), production and marketing/design.
A similar move in November 2023 resulted in “approximately 38 employees” being cut, which amounted to “approximately 40%” of the workforce, according to Motorsport Games. Traxion understands between 10 and 20 were lost today, leaving a diminutive team.
“Unfortunately I have been made redundant from Studio 397 and Motorsport Games due to further reductions in the workforce,” read another LinkedIn post from a now-former member of Motorsport Games’ management suite.
“Extremely grateful to work with some talented and passionate people and work on some amazing projects and events in my three years at the company – I gave everything I could.”
In recent earnings summaries, Hood was bullish about the company’s trajectory, claiming in April that initial Le Mans Ultimate sold “more in 36 hours than we projected for 10 days” and that “13 per cent of players” had purchased optional DLC, despite it being in early access.
The company has repeatedly expressed a desire to port Le Mans Ultimate to PlayStation and Xbox platforms, claiming in August that these plans had been “accelerated” but without confirming that development was underway.
Motorsport Games was not able to comment at this time about the recent cuts.
Alongside its official FIA WEC title, the outfit is contractually obligated to create 2024-season British Touring Car Championship DLC for rFactor 2 and is set to receive $500k from iRacing before the end of the year.
This cash injection will conclude its sale of the rights to make NASCAR video games. This payment, however, will also see existing MSG-published NASCAR titles removed from sale, which according to the company, made up 55 per cent of its revenue between May and June 2024.
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