A week after Vivendi Universal closed down its Dynamix games development studio it has emerged that the damage was far more severe than previously suspected.

The closure of Dynamix and the resulting 97 lay-offs was just part of a major reorganisation at Sierra On-Line, which saw another 148 people being sacked at Bellevue and a further 20 transferred to Los Angeles, as well as the virtual annihilation of the Sierra Home software label.

Vivendi's other studios, Blizzard and Universal Interactive, were both apparently uneffected by the reorganisation, but they must be a little nervous after this.

Sierra president Michael Ryder insisted that "while any reorganisation involving staff reductions is difficult, there is no doubt that this is the right thing to do for the business". ®

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