Gree reportedly lays off 30 staff in San Francisco

Gree, the Japanese social networking service and game publisher, reportedly laid off "around" 30 staff from its San Francisco office last week, anonymous sources recently told GamesIndustry International.

"We have recently aligned Gree's US studio to focus on creating the next generation of mobile social games," Anil Dharni, COO of Gree International Inc. said in a statement issued to press. "This shift in focus has been clearly demonstrated by the success and growth of our games.

"As part of ensuring that we are operating as efficiently as possible, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our work force. The employees leaving today have made great contributions to our success and we wish them all the best."

The Gree San Francisco office is home to more than 400 employees and focuses on mobile game development.

Gree announced last November that it was discontinuing OpenFeint, the third-party social network platform for iOS and Android apps, resulting in approximately 25 redundancies. Gree acquired OpenFeint in 2011 for $104 million. In February, the company earmarked $10 million to start the Gree Partners Fund, an initiative to find talented mobile game developers and fund their games.

Polygon has reached out to Gree about the recent lay offs and will update this story with more information as we have it.