It's sad but inevitable that when a developer completes work on a game it restructures its organisation and job losses occur as a result. This time it's RockStar Games and many of the people who worked on the brilliant Red Dead Redemption that will be axed.

RockStar has issued the following statement:

"As is typical with game development, our team sizes have always fluctuated over the course of the development cycle," said studio boss Steve Martin.

"As Rockstar San Diego transitions from the launch of Red Dead Redemption onto future projects, we are realigning our resources in order to continue to develop games as effectively as possible."

"We are ensuring that all employees who are affected by these changes are being treated with care," he added.

The sackings, approximately 40 in total, don't bode well for a new installment of the open-world adventure any time soon, which has achieved high critical acclaim and has spent plenty of time at the number one spot in both the US and UK charts.

"While we have no announcements to make regarding a sequel to Red Dead Redemption, the team here are hard at work on the development of downloadable content for the game."