Life Is Strange: True Colors Developer Deck Nine lays off 20 percent of staff

Deck Nine, developer of Life is Strange: True Colors, announced that it is laying off 20% of its staff. In the statement announcing this news, Deck Nine did not cite a specific reason for the layoffs. declaring the studio was affected by deteriorating industry conditions. Twenty percent of Deck Nine’s staff equates to about 30 employees, according to a report from Eurogamer.

Here’s Deck Nine’s statement, in full:

“Like many others in the video game industry today, Deck Nine has been affected by deteriorating market conditions in the video game industry. Today we have made the difficult decision to lay off 20% of our staff. These people are incredible, talented, and awesome developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not make this decision lightly. Please , hire these people if you can, they are amazing.

Deck Nine game Director Stephan Frost said on (formerly Twitter) that studio executives cut salaries to reduce the number of layoffs as much as possible. “It’s the strongest team [Deck Nine] That’s never been the case and it’s a real shame that the industry is in the state it is in now,” adds Frost.

These job cuts come on top of a series of other discouraging layoffs in 2024, which total more than 6,500 people in the first two months of the year alone. Yesterday we learned that PlayStation was laying off 900 employees at Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and more, also shutting down London Studio. The day before, Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games announced the layoff of 90 employees.

At the end of January, we learned that Groupe Embracer had canceled a new Deus Ex game in development at Eidos-Montreal and laid off 97 employees in the process. Also in January, Destroy All Humans remake developer Black Forest Games reportedly laid off 50 employees and Microsoft announced it was also laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax teams. Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees in January and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees.

We recently learned that CI Games, publisher of Lords of the Fallen, is laying off 10% of its staff, that Unity will lay off 1,800 people by the end of March, and that Twitch has laid off 500 employees.

We also learned that Discord laid off 170 employees, that layoffs took place at PTW, a support studio that has worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company Thunderful Group laid off around 100 people. . Dead by Daylight developer Behavior Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people.

Last year, more than 10,000 people working in the video game industry or adjacent industries were laid off.

In January of last year, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees as part of its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, completed in October.

Striking Distance Studios, the team behind 2022’s The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees in August 2023. The same month, BioWare, developer of Mass Effect and Dragon Age, laid off 50 employees, including longtime veterans of the studio. The following month, in September, Ascendant Studios, developer of Immortals of Aveum, laid off approximately 45% of its staff, and Fortnite developer Epic Games laid off 830 employees.

In October last year, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees, and Telltale Games was also laid off, although the actual number of employees affected has not yet been revealed. Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees in late October.

In November, Amazon Games laid off 180 staff members, Ubisoft laid off more than 100 employees, Bungie laid off around 100 developers, and 505 Games parent company Digital Bros laid off 30% of its staff.

In December, Embracer Group closed its reformed TimeSplitters studio, Free Radical Design, and earlier in the year, Embracer closed Saints Row developer Volition Games, a studio with over 30 years of development history. Weeks before the winter break, Hasbro, owner of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, laid off 1,100 employees.

The video game industry will surely feel the effects of these horrific layoffs for years to come. The hearts of game Informer staff stands with everyone affected by layoffs or closures.