Phoenix Labs, the studio behind titles like Dauntless and Fae Farm, has introduced that it has laid off most of its workers. The studio made the announcement via a submit on LinkedIn, the place it referred to as the layoffs “unlucky however vital.”
“In the present day is one other tough day at Phoenix Labs,” says the announcement. “Now we have made the robust resolution to half methods with the vast majority of the studio as a part of unlucky however vital modifications to our operations.”
“We acknowledge and deeply respect the contributions of each particular person impacted. Their expertise, dedication, and creativity have left an indelible mark on our firm and our video games.”
The studio hasn’t revealed particulars on precisely what number of of its workers had been let go, nor has it introduced future plans for Dauntless or Fae Farm. Its assertion did point out that extra particulars in regards to the two titles will likely be introduced within the coming weeks, nonetheless.
“To our business friends, we encourage you to succeed in out to those distinctive people – they’re among the finest within the enterprise,” wrote the studio.
The transfer has adopted an identical spherical of layoffs again in Might 2024, the place the studio additionally cancelled a number of unannounced initiatives that had been being developed on the time. The choice was made again then for Phoenix Labs to focus extra on stay service titles. On the time, experiences indicated that greater than 100 builders could be a part of the layoffs.
The transfer follows a large drop within the participant base for Dauntless, which basically scrapped its total authentic design philosophy of making an attempt to be a brand new tackle the Monster Hunter style. Adjustments made to the title introduced it extra in step with an motion RPG the place monsters wouldn’t be the large bosses that the title was initially well-regarded for.
The modifications made to Dauntless had been described by Phoenix Labs as being a part of an try and create a “sturdy basis” on which steady improvement would happen as a part of a brand new seasonal content material mannequin. Since this replace, nonetheless, participant suggestions has been extremely damaging. For context, on the time of writing, Dauntless sits at a evaluation combination of Largely Detrimental for latest evaluations, and Overwhelmingly Detrimental for all evaluations.
Fae Farm, in distinction, appears to have averted the studio’s stay service ambitions, with its participant base nonetheless having fun with the title. On Steam, this quantities to Very Optimistic scores, each for latest evaluations and all evaluations.
