The Colorado-based developers of Playstation 3 downloadable game Pain were hit with lay-offs today, sources at the company tell Kotaku.
We've contacted Idol Minds for comment but have not yet heard back.
The layoffs at the company, based in Louisville, Colorado between Boulder and Denver, have been coming in waves we're told, with the latest impacting 17 employees. Our sources tell us that in total, 26 of the staff of once 46 have been let go.
Over its 11-year history Idol Minds developed and published a number of games including My Street, Rally Cross 2 and the Coolboarders franchise. But they're perhaps best known for their pick-up-and-play, groan-inducing downloadable PS3 game PAIN.
In PAIN, gamers catapult a rag-doll avatar across a bustling setting, trying to rack up as much damage to both the landscape and the character as possible. Since it's release in 2007, PAIN has also received a number of new downloads that add characters and settings to the Playstation Network game.
In a September 2009 job listing for a producer, Idol Minds writes that PAIN "demonstrates the current evolution of our company and its goals."
"Our mission is to create a user-defined experience, build a community of users, develop on next generation hardware, and of course, have fun doing it!" according to the listing.
Our sources say the latest job cuts may be connected to "Sony budget cuts." Sony is currently Idol Minds' only source of funding, our sources tell us.