Social gaming company Gree offering buyouts to 200 employees

Struggling Japanese social gaming firm Gree is offering a “voluntary redundancy” plan to some of its employees, according to a document translated by market analyst Dr. Serkan Toto (via GamesIndustry International).

Gree is reportedly offering the plan — essentially buyouts and early retirement offers — to about 200 employees, which is 11 percent of its workforce, to reduce costs and boost profitability following a weak financial quarter.

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“Gree has in recent months carried out a range of adjustments to its operations to align them with challenging business conditions and lower revenues, based on a process of selection and concentration,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to GamesBeat. “This has included narrowing the portfolio of titles that we develop and operate and reducing fixed costs. We have also reorganized our business as a whole, establishing separate web game business and native game business divisions among other structural changes, as we adapt our operations to ongoing changes in the market and in our operating environment.

“Against this background, we have decided to further streamline our operations by implementing a voluntary redundancy program in our administrative and back-office departments at our headquarters in Tokyo. To lessen the impact for those leaving Gree as part of this program, we have arranged job placement support and other measures to aid them in the transition. This initiative, like the other strategic measures we have implemented recently, is aimed at transforming Gree into a leaner, stronger company.”

Toto notes that this plan comes one day after Japanese business publication The Nikkei reported Gree is closing its office in Osaka, which opened just last year. The firm reportedly told 30 employees there that they must retire or move to its Tokyo headquarters by the middle of October.

This is not the first time this year Gree has scaled back its international business. Back in July, TechCrunch reported that the mobile gaming giant was shutting down all of its operations in the United Kingdom. Before that, it closed operations in China and San Francisco, laying off 120 and 25 employees, respectively.