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Layoffs at Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City developer

Vancouver-based Slant Six trims a quarter of its workforce with hope to hire back affected workers once additional projects are lined up.

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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was "a big success" for Capcom, but that hasn't been enough to keep the developer of the spin-off shooter from instituting cost-cutting measures.

Slant Six stressed the
Slant Six stressed the "temporary" aspect of the layoffs.

A representative for Vancouver-based Slant Six told GameSpot today that more than a quarter of the studio's 96 employees were given the option of taking a severance package or accepting a temporary layoff while the studio looks to take on additional projects. Those who are temporarily laid off will be able to collect employment insurance and retain their extended benefits from Slant Six for 13 weeks, after which point the termination of employment becomes permanent if the studio hasn't been able to rehire them.

"Regretfully, we can confirm that there have been some temporary layoffs at our studio," the company's official statement reads. "We must stress that these are temporary layoffs, which means we are working very hard on new business prospects so we can reinstate every single person affected. As an independent and close-knit studio it is a very difficult but necessary business measure due to the current project cycle demands."

The representative said most of the 26 affected employees chose to accept the temporarily layoff, and the company's remaining 70 staffers are continuing to work on its two current projects. One of them is "a collaborative game venture with a major publisher," while the other is Slant Six's first self-published title, Strata Scavenger. A new intellectual property, Strata Scavenger is a downloadable postapocalyptic flight sim for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is set for release early next year.

Beyond Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Slant Six is best known for its work on Sony's SOCOM series of games. The studio created SOCOM: Confrontation for the PS3, as well as the PSP SOCOM installments Tactical Strike and Fireteam Bravo 3.

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