Humble Games, an indie mid-size publisher behind many critically acclaimed games, has laid off around 36 workers, former staff confirmed Tuesday.
Former employees announced the layoffs via LinkedIn. A senior QA generalist, Emilee Kieffer, also noted that the entire team had been laid off. Associate director of brand marketing Brea Timmerman added that all employees were called into a meeting and told their “roles had been terminated.”
“The game industry is volatile, it’s been inundated by people who only want exponential growth at the expense of making great games with great teams,” Kieffer wrote on LinkedIn. “But I believe we have the power to create studios that benefit us as game developers and not people that only see us as money-printing machines.”
While some ex-staff claimed the company had been shut down, a spokesperson for Humble Games tells Digital Trends that the layoffs were due to “restructuring” efforts, and wouldn’t impact Humble Bundle, a digital storefront known for selling discount bundles, nor any of its upcoming projects. They wouldn’t comment on how many people were affected by the move.
Here’s the full statement:
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.
We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team’s contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.
Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated.
The publisher was still going up until the layoffs, releasing Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a myth-inspired platformer, this week. As of this writing, it’s still working on Wizard of Legend 2, an isometric dungeon crawler with procedural generation, along with Never Alone 2 and a bunch of other titles still listed on its website.
It was a partner of the Triple-I initiative, a collective of indie developers and publishers that held its first online presentation during this summer’s gaming showcase.
Humble Games has been attached to some of the best games of the last few years, including the horror game Signalis, the short but sweet Unpacking, and the punchy and highly replayable Slay the Spire (a sequel, Slay the Spire 2, is in development, but is set to be independently published). An underrated favorite of mine was also published by Humble: Void Bastards, a roguelike shooter with a cartoonish sense of humor.
This article has been updated with Humble’s statement, and the status of the studio according to a spokesperson has been clarified.
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