In a fallout of the government’s decision to ban real-money gaming app, Bengaluru-based online gaming firm, Gameskraft, announced on Thursday it is laying off 120 employees “with a very heavy heart”.
"After careful deliberation, as part of this restructuring, we will be, as of now, letting go of about 120 Krafters across teams and functions, a decision we make with a very heavy heart. As the business continues to evolve in response to external realities, further structural changes may be required," said a statement by the company.
"The current regulatory landscape has made us completely stop our business and has left us with no choice but to initiate a company-wide restructuring,” it added.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, passed by the Parliament on August 21, bars all forms of online money games while promoting e-sports and other online games.
The Act seeks to prohibit advertisements related to online money games and bars banks and financial institutions from transferring funds for any of such games. As a result, several companies that were engaged in the real-money gaming business have started laying off the majority of their staff.
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The implications of this legislation are complex, far-reaching, and have had an immediate and profound impact on the sector and Gameskraft, the company said in its statement.
Gameskraft said it “will stand by all impacted employees as per their employment agreements, including leave encashment based on total salary and not just basic salary”.
Group health insurance will stay active until March 2026 or when the affected employees join a new job, whichever is earlier, the company clarified, adding that employees can convert their group plan to an individual one, and those with dependent parent coverage can keep it uninterrupted.
Earlier this month, the firm had filed a police complaint against its former CFO for allegedly siphoning off over ₹231 crore – whose write-off led to a decline in the company's FY25 net profit.
The Bengaluru-based firm reported a net profit of ₹706 crore on a revenue of ₹4,009 crore in the fiscal year 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025). This compares with ₹947 crore net profit on a revenue of ₹3,475 crore in the previous year.
The 2024-25 profit was also impacted by "a one-time accounting adjustment of past unsanctioned transactions amounting to approximately ₹231 crore," it said in a statement.
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