Funcom to lay off staff as it pivots to focusing solely on Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening
Norwegian developer Funcom has announced a restructuring involving staff layoffs as it pivots to focus exclusively on live operations for two titles: Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening. The consolidation comes as Dune: Awakening, described as the studio’s largest project ever undertaken, continues consuming significant development resources.
The company will undergo a “difficult phase” of restructuring with the number of affected employees undisclosed. CEO Rui Casais, who has led Funcom for 11 years and spent 22 years at the company overall, will depart at year’s end. He will be succeeded by Chief Product Officer Scott Junior. Casais’s departure marks the end of an era that included steering the studio through its 2020 acquisition by Tencent.
The strategic narrowing reflects a broader industry trend of consolidating development resources around major live-service titles while deprioritizing other projects. This represents a significant portfolio contraction for Funcom, which previously maintained multiple concurrent development initiatives.