Large publishers like EA and Ubisoft always operated differently compared to other companies. Smaller companies usually just hire contractors or use 3rd party c

Large publishers like EA and Ubisoft always operated differently compared to other companies. Smaller companies usually just hire contractors or use 3rd party companies to work on their projects since they can't afford to employ someone to work on concept art, audio or voice over full time. Large publishers able to keep employees even if they have months between different projects. Still they move people around their subsidiaries and projects a lot since in game development most of staff only work on certain part of project for limited time. So closing isn't always mean someone was fired at all and in same time any acquired studio might be soon only exist on paper since all people might be working in different studios on different projects.