GameStop was hit by mass layoffs on Thursday after CEO Matt Furlong said they were necessary for the "transformation needs" of the company. GameStop has been unprofitable for some time--losing $380 million last year alone--and has taken some wild side steps from its core business in order to achieve profitability.
Unfortunately, one of those steps was to downsize, laying off not just GameStop employees but also staffers at Game Informer. In a new interview with MinnMax, former Game Informer creative director Jeff Akervik said that getting laid off last week came as a blow especially after having survived the previous round of layoffs back in 2019.
"We always figured out a way to do more with less," recounted Akervik. "And we kept doing that, and the sad thing is I feel that GameStop is catching wind of this and they're just like, 'Well, what if we just cut more people? They keep doing the same stuff, we'll just cut more people.' The output by and large stays the same and the level of quality stays the same."
Several Game Informer writers that were laid off in 2019 would go on to form MinnMax, which meant hosts Ben Hanson and Jeff Marchiafava were interested to hear about how things went after their departure. Akervik didn’t mince words.
"It's daunting and demoralizing to say the least," Akervik said, adding he expects those who remain at Game Informer to have much tougher jobs. "I'd love to say that GameStop will support them, I just don't believe they will because they've continually done what they could over the last three years to undermine any good will that I have."
According to Axios' Stephen Totillo, roughly half of Game Informer's staff have been cut since the beginning of the year.
GameStop's layoffs have certainly done it no favors in the world of high finance. GameStop's stock value took a tumble soon after news of the layoffs went public, with a price that's currently down $5 compared to where it was last Thursday.