3 years ago221Casual game maker DoubleDown Interactive this week laid off 55 employees at its Seattle office.
The company said the cuts mostly affected engineering and product development functions. They were made as DoubleDown moves development resources to its Seoul, South Korea headquarters location. The Seattle office serves as the company’s main U.S. engineering center and employed 149 people as of June 2020.
“DoubleDown’s Seattle office will remain an important location for the company continuing to be the primary site for player-facing activities such as channel marketing, paid user acquisition and retention, marketing art, and customer service as well as high-level app and game design and art,” Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager at DoubleDown, said in a statement to GeekWire.
DoubleDown is behind popular games such as DoubleDown Casino and DoubleDown Fort Knox. The company filed to go public this past summer but delayed its IPO in July.
The original DoubleDown Interactive was founded in Seattle in 2010. The company sold to Las Vegas casino giant IGT in 2012 in a deal valued at up to $500 million.
The Seoul component of the business was started in 2008 under the name The8Games Co., with that entity later selling to DoubleU Games Co. in 2016. A year later, DoubleU Games acquired DoubleDown Interactive from IGT for $825 million in cash, with a multi-year strategic partnership established between IGT and DoubleU.
Late last year, DoubleU changed its name to DoubleDown Interactive. The CEO is In Keuk Kim, who previously served as CEO of DoubleU. DoubleDown employs more than 200 people worldwide.
DoubleDown attracted 2.9 million game players per month in 2019, driving $273.6 million in revenue and net income of $36.3 million, according to IPO-related financial statements made public in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
English (US)