This year has unfortunately been filled with video game developer studios closing and/or laying off the talented people who build games that so many people love, and as the first half of this year reaches its curtain call and companies are planning their financials for the next fiscal year ahead there are difficult decisions to make. Unfortunately, the latest studio to announce the impacts of the current economic environment is Phoenix Labs, the studio behind Dauntless and Fae Farm.
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Per the announcement made by Phoenix Labs, the studio is restructuring in order to “pave a path for a strong future,” which includes canceling in-development titles and laying off members of the teams working on those games. Specifically, the announcement states that Phoenix Labs’ restructuring and focusing on the above two mentioned titles and supporting their corresponding communities “unfortunately means canceling work on all other projects at the studio, which will impact many of our colleagues immediately. We are giving notices to everyone whose roles are affected. This restructure has not come easily, and truly has been the last resort to ensure Phoenix Labs can survive, and thrive in the long term. It’s impossible to put into words how deeply we value every talented individual who has contributed their hard work and passion to every project at our studio.”
The announcement continues, “We are doing all we can to help our departing team members in this interim period and encourage any studios looking for incredible talent to speak with the one-of-a-kind people that have been a part of Phoenix Labs’ journey.”
The layoffs have reportedly impacted about 140 former Phoenix Labs employees per Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter, who also indicated that one of the canceled games was due to be announced soon. This was confirmed by one of the developers who was impacted by the layoffs, Former UX lead Noah Watkins, who wrote on LinkedIn, “The most frustrating part is how close we were to announcing our new game that many have spent 5+ years on.”
Phoenix Labs principal engineer Kris Morness also posted on LinkedIn to touch on the decisions at Phoenix Labs, indicating the studio’s purchase from last year as an issue: “Forte just cancelled all projects in development including the game we were announcing in one month.” Forte purchased Phoenix Labs in 2023, and the studio has now had three rounds of layoffs between 2023 and now.
Deepest apologies and best of luck to those impacted by the layoffs at Phoenix.
