MMO studio Red 5 hit by layoffs?

Kotaku reports that Red 5 Studios, a California-based MMO developer formed of World of Warcraft alumni from Blizzard, has been reduced to a skeleton staff and has shelved its major project.

Anonymous sources told the site that layoffs have left the developer with some 30 employees, down from the 65 listed on the official website and around 100 over a year ago. Red 5 had apparently been facing closure, but has been bailed out by an anonymous buyer.

Red 5's game - which founder Mark Kern discussed a year ago - was apparently to be a massively multiplayer first-person shooter. According to Kotaku's source, it's been put on hold while the studio focuses on another project aimed at the Chinese market.

Red 5 was formed amid some fanfare back in 2005, but had yet to show anything substantive on its game.