“The reasons provided to staff impacted by the business range from organizational restructuring, to misalignment of their roles with business objectives or individual performance metrics,” said Jill McCabe, CEO of Game Workers Australia.
“We understand that while affected staff may have inquired about other vacancies, they were left with the impression that they would not be suitable for those positions.”
Immutable employees, who held positions ranging from video effects artists to senior engineers to marketing director, were notified of the layoffs 24 hours before they were told to leave the company last Monday.
A spokesperson for Immutable denied that the layoffs were timed to coincide with the expiration of employee stock.
“All employees were able to hold vested options, and we did not force a buyout on exit,” the spokesperson said.
Immutable is the developer and publisher of two non-fungible token (NFT) based video games called Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians.
It is also the developer of commercial NFT marketplaces for companies like TikTok, and GameStop through its ImmutableX business.
Gods Unchained is backed by the $GODS token, which fell 10% after a senior designer tweeted about their abrupt dismissal on July 26 and a new stories regarding the layoffs was published on CNET.
On July 27, Galen Law-Kun, a crypto investor, tweeted that he invested $200,000 directly into the $GODS token. Since then, the $GODS token has steadily increased and is now buying 43¢ US.
Immutable’s handling of the layoffs, which involved a 30-minute company-wide meeting last Monday, included the laying off of 19 permanent full-time employees and 16 other contract employees.
It was widely understood within the crypto company that those who had been employed for at least three years could exercise their options each December.
This means that the company would buy back part of these options from the employee. The Australian Financial Review understands that these options are currently worth around $1300 each.
At last week’s emergency meeting, employees were told that Immutable had $300 million in the bank.