Gazillion Entertainment has confirmed a round of layoffs at Slipgate Ironworks, the MMO development studio founded by ex-id Software and Ion Storm designer John Romero.

According to a statement issued to Kotaku, development of the San Francisco Bay Area studio’s unnamed MMO will continue with a "smaller core team”. The site’s tipsters indicate that as many as 50 members of staff have been cut.

“As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim," said Gazillion.

"The game we'll launch will build on the efforts to date with a smaller core team and the other Slipgate staff are already in discussions around the many open positions across our slate of projects.”

Privately-owned, San Mateo-based publisher Gazillion emerged from “stealth mode” in March 2009 with the announcement of its four wholly-owned studios, including Gargantuan and NetDevil, the latter of which is currently at work on the Lego Universe MMO and Jumpgate Evolution. Earlier this year it signed a ten year licensing deal with Marvel to produce titles based on the comic book publisher's properties.