Factor 5 job cuts rumoured

Rumours of layoffs and delays to pay at Factor 5 have seemingly been confirmed to Edge as “all true” by an anonymous source, which the site describes as ‘well-placed’.

According to the speculation, 37 employees were laid off at Factor 5’s San Rafael studio in California, while around 38 remain. The source also claimed that staff at The developer have not been paid since October 15th.

Factor 5’s troubles emerged when one of the company’s artists, Sam Baker, claimed on his personal blog that problems with paying staff and other financial cutbacks were becoming an issue at the developer, which was originally formed in Germany.

Speaking to Edge, the source said: "The thing that bothers me the most about it all is they could have avoided all of this ages ago. It wasn’t really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn’t help much either."

The same blog also claimed that problems were down to the multi-game deal Factor 5 had agreed with Brash Entertainment when the licensed game producer closed.

Factor 5 was behind the acclaimed Rogue Squadron series, but its most recent development, Lair for PS3, was unpopular with critics and consumers.