Surgeon Simulator and Lost Skies devs Bossa Studios lay off a third of staff due to "perfect storm of events"
Co-founder cites delayed funding, higher costs and AAA competition as causes
Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread creators Bossa Studios have laid off around a third of their staff, with 19 people departing the London, UK-based independent in December due to what co-founder Henrique Olifiers has called "a perfect storm of events" - heavy competition from blockbuster games at the backend of last year, increased operating costs, and delayed funding decisions across the industry.
The news comes from GamesIndustry.biz, who say the redundancies have mostly taken place in QA and production roles as well as non-UK-based staff. Bossa have now confirmed the report, stating that 40 people remain at the company.
In the statement, Olifiers called the tough financial conditions at the end of last year "a blue moon situation" - in other words, a rare and unexpected event. "This means we find ourselves in the heartbreaking position of having to let roughly one third of the studio go - amongst them, some of our closest colleagues," he said.
"While we are doing our utmost to support them, we would appreciate any help our industry peers can give in spreading the word about these great people - or even better, hiring them as part of your team," Olifiers went on. "You'll be hard-pressed to find a better game development professional than one of these Bossians, whom we'll vouch for without hesitation.
"We often say that making games is hard, but nothing is harder than seeing people you admire being let go. Ultimately, we tried our very best to avoid being in this position, and we're truly sorry for where we have landed."
According to Olifers, Bossa are "focusing all our efforts now" on Lost Skies, an open world fantasy co-op affair, in which groups of 1-6 players explore ruined floating islands using grappling hooks, paragliders and customisable airships. Announced earlier in 2023 for release in 2024, it shares a lot of DNA with the developers' previous MMO project Worlds Adrift, which closed in 2019 and which I rather liked, for all its flaws.
2023 was, as you are probably tired of hearing, an awful year for videogame layoffs. It seems likely that the losses will continue. Amongst other big corporations, Embracer Group are still in the midst of a "restructuring" process that has already lead to around 900 departures.
Best of luck to everybody at Bossa who lost their jobs over Xmas.