Layoffs Underway at Just Dance VR and Drop Dead Studio Soul Assembly

Soul Assembly, the studio known for titles like Drop Dead: The Cabin and Just Dance VR, is undergoing a challenging period with staff reductions.

Although there’s been no official word from the studio itself, several employees have taken to LinkedIn to confirm that the UK-based developer is indeed experiencing layoffs. The full scale of these cuts remains uncertain, but they appear to span across various departments such as quality assurance, marketing, production, animation, and among different artists.

Details on the exact number of affected employees are still vague. While the size of Soul Assembly’s entire team isn’t publicly known, their LinkedIn page lists around 74 individuals. We’ve reached out to Soul Assembly for more information, and should we receive any updates, we’ll be sure to provide them here.

Having emerged from developer Pixel Toys as an independent entity in 2022, Soul Assembly is often regarded as a seasoned player in the VR gaming arena. In addition to Just Dance VR and Last Stand, their repertoire includes games like Warhammer 40k: Battle Sister and Drop Dead: Dual Strike. They’ve also been exploring mixed reality spaces with innovations such as the Home Invasion mode of Drop Dead: The Cabin for Quest and Soul Spire for Apple Vision Pro.

Soul Assembly joins a growing list of studios announcing layoffs, reflecting the tough times the video game industry has faced over the last couple of years. Just last October, XR Games, the studio behind Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, underwent significant restructuring that reportedly impacted 72 staff members. Prior to that, nDreams revealed that they were letting go of 17.5% of their workforce, a move that came right before the launch of two anticipated games, Vendetta Forever and Frenzies.