Slay the Spire, Signalis and Unpacking publishers Humble are the next video game makers to suffer layoffs
"We have experienced trends that required this restructure in order to ensure our long-term success”
Humble Games, the Humble Bundle-owned label responsible for publishing indie hits including Slay the Spire, Signalis, Unpacking, Temtem and this year’s recently Grammy-nominated RPG musical Stray Gods, have confirmed a number of layoffs.
Job losses at Humble Games were first reported by Sports Illustrated’s video games section GLHF, which spotted a LinkedIn post from the publisher’s former lead release manager that indicated that several more staff had been laid off.
Humble subsequently confirmed that it had laid off a number of employees, but did not comment on how many staff had been affected in total or whether the cuts targeted specific teams under the company. The publisher attributed the cuts to the need to “restructure”.
“Like many companies this year, we have experienced trends that required this restructure in order to ensure our long-term success,” a representative said. “It's especially worth noting that everyone impacted by these changes are talented, dedicated individuals who made a huge impact.”
Games released under the Humble Games label include influential deckbuilder Slay the Spire, last year’s throwback survival-horror gem Signalis and multiplayer Pokémon-a-like Temtem, among others. The label’s most recent games include Stray Gods, the roleplaying musical from Dragon Age writer David Gaider that saw Austin Wintory, Tripod and Montaigne’s soundtrack shortlisted for Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media at the Grammys just last week.
As I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, 2023 has been a horror show for those working in video games, with thousands of layoffs across developers, publishers and platform-holders.
Just yesterday the owner of Death Stranding, Control and Dead by Daylight publisher 505 announced that it would be making almost a third of its workers redundant, following close to 200 job losses at Amazon Games reported the day before (despite record profits for the Bezos machine). Those join thousands more, ranging from the studios caught up in Embracer’s ongoing restructuring plans to potential layoffs at the likes of beleaguered engine maker Unity, meaning the paine is far from over just yet.