Unless you've made a runaway success, your management may be eager to reduce the team size and allow for most of the production staff to move onto other game projects and opportunities.
This transition will often be done after the game matures (12-24 months after launch) and where there's stable revenue but little prospect for outstanding growth (there are only a few games that can turn into a massive success more than a year after release).
With efficient content and event management tools (more on those later) and T-shaping (training the remaining staff to take up a wide range of tasks and responsibilities), you should be able to run a mature title of average complexity and size with just a few, highly empowered people. ...
