Funcom restructuring brings layoffs as it focuses on Dune: Awakening

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Funcom is restructuring its business around Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles, with the process expected to result in job losses and CEO Rui Casais leaving the company once the reorganisation is complete, according to PC Gamer’s report on the company’s announcement ¹. The change follows Dune: Awakening moving from full production into long-term post-launch development and operations. Casais said the survival game was the biggest project Funcom had undertaken and that the shift required a different organisational shape. Funcom has not said how many employees are affected, and the company says it will not provide more detail until the restructuring is finished ¹. Funcom’s stated focus is now its existing survival games rather than starting another major project. Dune: Awakening launched with a large multiplayer survival-RPG scope, while Conan Exiles has also received substantial post-launch work, including an engine upgrade and paid expansion ¹. The move suggests Funcom is treating both games as long-term live products rather than continuing to staff them as if they were still in peak development. Casais is due to leave when the reorganisation concludes. Scott Junior, Funcom’s chief product officer and executive producer on Dune: Awakening, is expected to succeed him ¹. The company has not supplied a timetable for the process or said whether the affected roles are concentrated in a particular studio. The announcement arrives after Funcom made several changes to Dune: Awakening, including a greater emphasis on solo play and player-versus-environment content. The game’s initial sales were strong, but its longer-term player numbers and the reception to its endgame have been more mixed, according to the report ¹. This is a significant reset for Funcom, even if the studio frames it as a normal transition from production to operations. Supporting established games can be sensible, but layoffs still show that the company’s staffing model was built for a larger development phase than its current plans require. The practical test will be whether Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles receive focused, sustainable support without the teams behind them being stretched too thin. For now, Funcom has confirmed the restructuring but not its human cost. Until the company publishes that figure, reports describing the scale of the layoffs should be treated as incomplete.