Earlier this year, GameStop underwent massive layoffs to achieve “sustained profitability” following news of low wages, high quotas and alleged abuse. During this, it turned to blockchain technology and NFTs, a department that has now reportedly been hit the hardest in a new round of layoffs.
According to Axios’ sources and several LinkedIn posts, GameStop has let go of six software engineers, though it’s unclear what the true scale of this round might be.
According to a software engineer, GameStop suffered “Another big round of layoffs… E-commerce products and engineers… Lots of them.” Another software engineer wrote: “Super sad to say I was left out of the layoffs today at GameStop.” Axios also reports that a Twitter user under a pseudonym posted about being let go.
GameStop’s senior software engineer wrote on LinkedIn, “Received the unfortunate news this morning that I was part of today’s layoffs at GameStop. I am proud of what I built for the eCommerce + Retail technology infrastructure during my time there and the opportunity to work with a great team while doing it.”
Linked to the report that the blockchain department was the hardest hit is an iOS engineer and blockchain developer’s post: “I had a great time diving deep into Ethereum and learning about a lot of new things in the crypto space.”
GameStop has been under scrutiny for a few months now, when it was first alleged in November that it had leaked customer data such as billing addresses and payment history after allegations were made in September that it was eavesdropping on customers and creating “secret transcripts”. “of calls. Back in July, employees working at GameStop claimed it was “terrifying [and] demoralizing”.
The initial layoffs were said to be for the company’s “transformation needs,” although it is unclear why this new wave of layoffs has occurred. GameStop’s stock is 500 percent above its price going into 2021, but it has an earnings call tomorrow, so clarity could come soon.
