One of the biggest of the downloadable PC game publishers, WildTangent, is doing some restructuring. According to the TechFlash web site the Seattle based company is shutting down its internal game development studio and as a result is laying off 20 team members, which is about a fifth of its workforce.

Gamasutra also reports that WildTangent's CEO, Alex St. John, no longer hold that position in the company although he remains chairman. St. John, who is known for his highly opinionated views on the games industry, founded WildTangent in 1998 after being one of the main team members at Microsoft who first created the DirectX API for PCs. According to the news reports WildTangent will still serve as a publisher for third party downloadable PC games.

Update: Our sister site Game Daily has heard back from WildTangent who called Alex St. John's move to chairman a "promotion" and insists he is still actively involved with the company but is leaving day-to-day operations to the new CEO Mike Peronto (who has been President of the company for several years)