Avalanche Studios, the developers behind the recently released Mad Max and the upcoming open world action game Just Cause 3 has laid off 24 of its employees ahead of the Just Cause 3 release. In an article written after email correspondence between the site and a representative of Avalanche Studios over on Game Informer, the representative had this to say:

The transition between major projects is always challenging, especially for independent developers," a representative told us [Game Informer] via email. "We have just completed one project and are currently wrapping up another. In starting up our new projects, we were not able to perfectly match the team sizes and skill sets of the previous ones, and we unfortunately had to let some talented developers go. 12 developers were given notice in New York. There was a similar number of notices given this summer in Stockholm, but right now we are in the process of rehiring some of those who left. We expect to keep hiring in the new year. This unfortunate event does not affect any of our current projects, and we're taking measures to avoid situations like this in the future.

Unfortunately layoffs are a sad fact of reality for employees at game studios. Studios operate under a tight budget and sometimes that budget is not big enough to sustain an entire team after the release of a game. Teams shrink and expand with the projects they are working on, and because a lot of game designers are operating in a freelance capacity they are often among the first to go, with some people getting rehired once a new project goes into development.

Just Cause 3 went gold (which means that the game is ready to be sent off for disc manufacturing) on the 22nd of October. The game will be available in shops worldwide December 1st.