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People Can Fly, the studio behind Outriders, Bulletstorm, and Gears of War: Judgment, has reportedly laid off over 30 employees.
As reported by Kotaku, in an internal email shared with them, People Can Fly has claimed to have laid off 30 developers working on an unannounced Square Enix game, codenamed Project Gemini, and a further 20 staff have also been reallocated to other projects.
According to People Can Fly development director Adam Alker, the reason behind the cut was made due to budget limitations and the shrinking scope of the project.
A source claimed that the campaign length of Project Gemini has been shortened than originally planned and the enemy roster has also been reduced.
“We understand that this decision impacts each of you, and we want to express our gratitude for your hard work, dedication, and contributions thus far,” Alker said in the internal email to affected employees.
“To those individuals transitioning out of the studio due to these changes, we extend our sincere appreciation for the skills and expertise you brought to the team.”
“We will keep our fingers crossed for your next steps in game dev and offer all our support.”
Sadly, the year 2024 is continuing the devastating and disheartening trend of mass layoffs that affected many studios last year.
Today, we learned that Microsoft will be laying off 1,900 employees across Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and ZeniMax.
Earlier this week, Riot Games also faced layoffs with 11% of its workforce being let go, while Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games and Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive were also hit with laid off.
Earlier this month, livestreaming platform Twitch and game engine software company Unity were also hit with devastating mass layoffs.
