Ngmoco reportedly lays off 30 employees, including 2 senior leaders

Former iOS game giant, Ngmoco, seems to be in one of the darker corners of limbo lately. In the past they brought us some really great titles like Star Defense and Rolando, and after blasting into the freemium market back in late 2009, they saw a good chunk of success there too. Lately, however, the future of Ngmoco seems a little uncertain.

When they were acquired by Japanese superpower DeNA for $400 M, many of us expected to see their game portfolio improve and expand. But that hasn’t really been the case. In fact, aside from the release of Godfinger back in late 2010, we haven’t seen or heard much from the seemingly defunct developer.

It’s also hard to remain optimistic when the latest news we hear of Ngmoco is that they’ve just finished a round of lay-offs. This kind of thing isn’t exactly a rarity in the mobile world, but it becomes a little more unsettling when you learn that, reportedly, among the departed was the director of mobile technology and the chief marketing officer. Some have speculated that the terminations could have been the result of the recent merger with DeNA and needing to eliminate duplicate positions – which would certainly be a little less tragic.

After reporting about the lay-offs, TechCrunch received this statement from Neil Young, the current CEO of Ngmoco:

Armed with the insights we’ve gained from both the Western and Japanese markets and after completing the integration of a series of key acquisitions, we’ve organized our global operations to best support and deliver on our mission to build the leading Global Social Mobile Game Platform company.

So, are these lay offs merely a side effect of restructuring, or is this a sign of the end of Ngmoco? It’s always kind of difficult to distinguish fact from PR garbage, but I’m going to remain hopeful that this won’t be the end of Ngmoco and that we haven’t seen the last from them. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Elle is a writer from Ottawa, Canada. The time she doesn't spend writing is often spent photographing her cat.