It was reported recently that Krome Studios, best known for handling the Game Room service on Xbox Live, had shut down and laid off its remaining staff. CEO Robert Walsh disputes this though, saying the studio is working on multiple projects currently, including one they’re awaiting word on.
"I’ll find out in the next day or two, if this project goes ahead," Walsh said. "And then we have another project that comes up in a couple of weeks, which could [require] another 40 people. So it’s going to be anywhere between 30 and 100. It’s pretty much just a smaller version of what [Krome] was."
Walsh went on to emphasize how Krome Studios’ business model has changed rather than the studio shutting down.
"Basically, all we’re doing now is working on paying projects. One of the things that Krome’s done over the years is that we’ve tried to keep staff on as long as possible, when we didn’t necessarily have paying work. To be really honest, that’s pretty much led to our current position. We probably kept 100, 120 people on, waiting for work to come in. Now we’ve just… you know, our business model doesn’t work, and we’re just working on the stuff that we know is real, and moving forward in that way. The other thing that we’re doing, too, is that we’re keeping a smaller, core team to do contract work, as opposed to keeping massive overheads. Where the dollar is now, you can’t afford to keep people on, to carry them through the peaks and the troughs."
[IGN]
