Humble Games, the video games publisher, known for popular games such as Slay the Spire, Signalis and Unpacking, has decided to trim its team by 36.
The company claims that the decision was taken to ensure that its ongoing projects remained stable and its developers continued to receive the required support for the same. The company, has, however, reportedly assured that the impacted employees, including its development partners will be helped through the transition.
A senior quality-assurance analyst of Humble Games, who was impacted in this layoff round, has posted on social media about the respect and visibility she received due to her association with Humble Games. She implied in her post that senior executives and businessmen in the video games space are focusing on profits and business alone without bothering about the developers who are responsible for the creation of these popular products. She appears to lament the fact that developers take the brunt while the publishers rake in the profits.
This year, many video games studios and firms have trimmed their teams, rendering thousands of employees jobless. Microsoft’s gaming division let go about 2,000 team members followed suit by Unity, EA, riot, PlayStation Studios,Take-Two and many more. Many studios have shut down including, Tango Gameworks, PS London and Arkane Austin. Microsoft Gaming was responsible for the creation and popularity of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox. The gaming division was about 22,000-strong before the job cuts happened in January 2024. Surprisingly, the layoff at Microsoft’s gaming division happened not long after Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal, in October 2023. This acquisition was said to be the biggest in the gaming space.