ArenaNet is the studio responsible for Guild Wars 2, and GameDaily.biz reports that staff have been laid off as part of a restructuring effort by NCSoft West. CEO Songyee Yoon had said that costs needed to be reduced, and employees were told last Friday that the developer wasn't in a sustainable position financially.
According to the source in the report the staff were allegedly split into two groups for leadership discussions, with company founder Mike O'Brien emotional at the time. The amount of staff laid off is apparently "significant".
"We can confirm that a number of staff at ArenaNet were affected today as part of NCSOFT's ongoing restructuring of its development and publishing business in the west," a company representative told GameDaily. "However, we don't comment on specific individuals or details of staff reductions."
NCSoft has said that these changes do not affect Guild Wars 2 content or either of the games.
Gamereactor sends our thoughts to those affected by the cuts.