Layoffs and restructuring, strategic adjustments, "Web3 Disney" Yuga Labs waking up

Last week, Yuga Labs' leadership team made a decision that had a significant impact on the project after deliberations in New York. Yuga Labs said on Twitter that its team will be reorganized to better focus on core priorities, but that "these changes are necessary for the growth of the organization."

Layoffs and team reorganization

The crypto industry is a market that is highly closely linked to market conditions. Layoffs are standard in a bear market for almost every crypto business. And Yuga Labs, like other bear market struggles, began layoffs as scheduled.

The team said they had "some tough news" that many roles were going to be eliminated across the company and that the restructuring would "affect a lot of colleagues."

For colleagues who have been optimized, Yuga Labs says they are committed to providing them with all the support they need. Includes generous severance pay, COBRA insurance, and assistance finding new job opportunities. Meetings will be held today with affected employees in the U.S. to discuss with affected employees, their department heads and the HR team.

One phenomenon that is not so "Web3" is that the practitioners under the chain are citizens of various countries in the legal sense after all, and the layoffs naturally have nationality. Yuga Labs noted, "Today's restructuring impacted U.S. team members, and we are actively reviewing the impact on international teams." The official did not specify the difference between the US team and the international team in the restructuring matter, and we can only wait for the follow-up. But the official also made a preview that more details will be disclosed at the upcoming all-hands meeting.

Is Meebits, 10 KTF still saved?

The brands most affected in this layoff may be 10 KTF and Meebits.

Official information shows that the teams of NFT projects Meebits and 10 KTF will be reorganized. This also means that it is difficult for these two NFT projects to have their own teams, and the collectibles of these two series may be hit hard.

After the reorganization, the teams of Meebits and 10 KTF will become part of Otherside.

Although Yuga Labs said, "This does not mean that the creative storytelling opportunities of the brand are gone, there is still a lot to be done in Otherside." But the brand value of both series will still be affected.

For the way out of these two NFT collections, Yuga Labs said, "Meebits is a collection built for the metaverse, and the 10 KTF store will eventually have a permanent home."

What does the future hold?

Yuga Labs bluntly explained that its team will be reorganized to better focus on "core priorities." So what are the priorities?

In the disclosure, the team gave three directions:

1. Committed to community expansion, growth, and brand interaction;

2. Fully committed to the implementation of the Otherside strategy, including unique initiatives such as games, entertainment experiences, interactive social connections, etc.;

3. Internal development efforts focus on a few core things and continue to build complementary long-term partnerships.

And for its two major communities, there are also plans for the future.

BAYC Community: The team will support the expansion of Made by Apes and other projects designed to empower members. The team understands the importance of the "early BAYC vibe" and is committed to maintaining that energy while continuing to foster the culture and creativity of the community.

In concrete terms, ApeFest Hong Kong will be held in the coming weeks. It will also bring users an important, versatile, and ongoing gaming experience in 2024.

CryptoPunks Community: The team will dedicate resources to solidify and celebrate the series' crypto art legacy through education, including upcoming books. Improve and simplify Punks applications and continue to create engaging experiences.

Otherside will be the focus of development

The Meebits and 10 KTF teams were merged into Otherside, which is the focus of the future. Officially, the Otherside team will build new gaming experiences through third-party partnerships in 2024.

The Otherside platform is expected to be showcased in 2024. Previously, the development of Otherside had been less disclosed. Officials said that in order to solve this problem, regular development updates will begin in the coming weeks.

In addition, more partnerships will be developed. Recently, Yuga Labs has just announced stable partnerships including Hadean, Bad Rhino, OMA 3, Accelbyte, Faraway, and more. In the future, we will continue to build brand partnerships, including with Gucci, A Bathing Ape and others, to expand new engagement opportunities within the communities we serve.

The road has narrowed in the past?

An interesting detail is that, officially, "partnerships are essential for our rapid and effective growth, which allows us to focus on what we do best." What did Yuga Labs say?

According to its own official explanation, Yuga Labs' work has been too fragmented in the past to focus on the important "core things."

For six months, Yuga tried to develop a clear vision that focused the team on "creative storytelling" and "community building," stating that "this is the core of Yuga."

However, Yuga Labs' large and complex business and numerous projects have made the team too thinly dispersed, and it has already required "execution expertise beyond our core competencies". This also lays the groundwork for Yuga Labs' restructuring today. For example, the official disclosure generously acknowledged the shortcomings of the game project - "especially in the execution of the game, we should not do this."

After careful consideration, the core staff at Yuga Labs felt that the team was taking on too much work on its own to focus on. Yuga Labs should benefit from more third-party forces. In the future, the team's work will be more focused on a few "key initiatives" and on "things that only Yuga can do".

NFT data shows that the current floor price of BAYC is 26.25 ETH, which has continued to decline in the past year, and the ATH price (128 ETH) has fallen by 80%, and the repeated release of new gameplay has been criticized by the community, APE's governance mechanism has been publicly complained about by large households several times, and the other IPs acquired by Yuga have no bright spots, can this strategic adjustment put Yuga Labs' huge NFT empire on the right track? The NFT market has been disappointed many times, but it is still full of expectations.