Steamworld Dig developer lays off 80-100 employees and cancels some in-development games to ensure 'long-term sustainability and resilience'
Thunderful, the studio formed in 2018 through a merger between Steamworld developer Image & Form and Fe developer Zoink, has announced a "strategic restructuring program" that will see an increased focus on third-party publishing, a cutback on internal development, and the games industry's favorite tool for weathering "tough economic headwinds": mass layoffs.
Thunderful said the shift to publishing over development will reduce costs and "allow for greater flexibility, enabling faster, diverse game releases. Alas, it also means that a "large portion" of Thunderful's development team are no longer needed, and so 80-100 employees are expected to be put out of work.
"It is regrettable to announce a second restructuring of Thunderful in less than a year, but we unfortunately see no other alternatives in order to ensure the Group’s long-term sustainability and resilience," Thunderful Group CEO Martin Walfisz said in the restructuring announcement. "The strategic move towards publishing games from external partners allows us to reduce fixed costs, increase flexibility, and better control our cash flow. We have many talented and dedicated employees, and it is with great regret that we are forced to part ways."
As noted by RPS, the first round of layoffs referenced by Walfisz occurred in January of this year, which saw 20% of the company's workforce let go because of "over-investments made in the last few years."
That's been a running theme throughout the games industry over the past couple years: Big spending and hiring during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then deep cuts when concerns about the disease subsided and people very predictably (unless you're a videogame company executive, I guess) started going back outside again.