Hudson Downsizes Half of U.S. Employees (Updated)

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Update: Hudson Entertainment has released an official statement confirming the layoffs. Several of the mobile division's Q&A and porting staff were let go, according to the statement, and their duties will be performed through "a more cost effective outsourced solution."

"It is always a difficult decision to layoff staff members, but it was important that we realign our mobile games business to ensure that we can move forward," said Hudson CEO John Greiner in the statement.

Other than the outsourced positions, the mobile division will continue business as usual, and other Hudson Entertainment divisions remain unaffected.

Original Story: A source inside Hudson Entertainment revealed to Next-Gen and other outlets that the Bay Area-based subsidiary of Japanese game company Hudson Soft laid off about half of its employees recently. The 25 to 35 laid off staffers worked in the company's mobile division, but it's unknown if this division has been shut down entirely or just drastically minimized.

The source told Next-Gen the move was based on the mobile division's poor performance due to marketing and management mistakes. "Their mobile division has not been profitable for about the last year-and-a-half or so," the source said.

According to the source, the laid off employees received two-weeks severance pay. Several of the remaining Hudson employees have been discouraged by the downsizing. "It seemed like it caught everyone off guard," the source continued. "They didn't see it coming."

Hudson Entertainment parent company Hudson Soft is a further subsidiary of Tokyo-headquartered game company Konami, who bought a majority stake in the company in 2005. Shacknews contacted Hudson's U.S. offices for comment, but has not yet received a response.

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