Tiktok's parent company ByteDance has reportedly laid off hundreds of staff members, and is "aggressively downsizing" its video game business.
As reported by the South China Morning Post (and spotted by GamesIndustry), ByteDance has shut down most of its Shanghai-based Wushuang Studio and either laid off staff or moved them to other divisions of the company. Jobs have also been cut at the Jiangnan game development studio in Hangzhou.
Sources familiar with the downsizing said ByteDance's current gaming projects - which include a handful of mobile games - will continue to be supported in its Shanghai office, but seemingly no new developments will begin. Perhaps the most notable game coming from ByteDance is Marvel Snap, a new collectible card game developed by former Hearthstone director Ben Brode.
ByteDance was heavily investing in its gaming division just two years ago, making a major push to recruit upwards of 900 new staff members back in 2020. The company was reportedly looking to replicate the success of fellow Chinese tech giant Tencent, which has expanded its gaming business significantly in the last few years - most recently by investing in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware.
Akin to Netflix's push into gaming, ByteDance tested adding games to its social media platform TikTok back in May, but it's unclear if this trial will continue given the downsizing reports.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.