'Dreadnought' Dev Layoffs Happen Mere Days After Launch

It's been a long, hard road for Dreadnought, an open-world combat game where gigantic flying ships take on one another in crazy multiplayer combat. But after years of development, the game finally arrived for Steam/PC last week to a rather happy audience. However, that doesn't mean everything is going over smoothly with the development team at Six Foot.

Based on this report from Game Informer, the developer has seen a number of layoffs just days after the game's launch. It's apparently been building up for some time, as the studio had been talking about issues with funding over the summer.

Following a team meeting with CEO Matt Ballesteros, it was explained that the game had enough money to continue development up until release, wit hints at layoffs. It certainly beats the sudden departures that Telltale Games employees faced when their company let them go, but sad all the same.

Just days after the report, COO Christian Svensson confirmed the layoffs, noting the following in a statement:

"In August, Six Foot informed its staff of the upcoming potential for major changes to our company structure, including continued development of Dreadnought as a live product. Everyone on the games team was given the option to stay on and continue working or begin searching for other opportunities with the full support of the company and the aid of our staffing team, while still receiving pay in the interim. New updates on the company's status were delivered to the full team every two weeks from there.

Today we regrettably confirm a reduction of about a third of our game dev workforce. We're continuing to make available the full resources of our company to try to help those affected and their families land on their feet as quickly as possible.

We remain committed to Dreadnought's ongoing development, growth, and the pursuit of new projects. We are also dedicated to remaining active in helping our affected family to transition as smoothly as possible."

We do wish those that were laid off the best in landing on their feet and finding a new role.

Dreadnought is available for PC/Steam as well as PlayStation 4.