GiG closes in-house studio after “negligible” returns

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has opted to halt investments in its proprietary game studio, GiG Games, owing to a “negligible” of return on investment so far. 

The studio’s 25 employees have received termination packages, with three retained to maintain the current portfolio of games until the end of the year.

The studio was launched in November 2017, and launched its first title, Wild Reels, in October last year. In total it has produced four games, with Book of Souls, Fruit Slot and Popstar following Wild Reels.

However, GiG noted that “revenues generated from the proprietary games division have been negligible.”

“The decision to halt in-house content production is a strategic choice to facilitate full focus and resources on becoming the platform of choice for the iGaming industry,” Richard Brown, acting chief executive officer of GiG, said. “This forms part of recent strategic initiatives taken to reduce non-marketing related OPEX, together with our commitment to execution and bottom line earnings.

“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in building our own games for their contribution and dedication to the company.”

GiG estimates that it will make savings of around €250,000 per month following the studio's shut down.

It noted that the intellectual property created through the development of the four GiG Games titles would give it the option to resurrect the subsidiary and resume developing proprietary titles. For the time being, however, it will only offer third party content via its platform.