Fae Farm, Dauntless Studio Phoenix Labs Lays Off Staff, Cancels In-Development Games

Phoenix Labs, the developer behind last year’s Fae Farm and Dauntless, has laid off staff and canceled in-development games as part of a restructuring at the studio. Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter is reporting on X (formerly Twitter) that more than 100 people at Phoenix Labs were laid off. 

Shortly after Carpenter reported that, Phoenix Labs released the following statement: 

“Today is an incredibly difficult day. After a long period of evaluating how to navigate our economic structure, we have had to significantly restructure the company to pave a path for a strong future. We are reorganizing Phoenix Labs to focus on our best-in-class live service titles, Dauntless and Fae Farm, and serving their communities. 

“This unfortunately means canceling work on all other projects at the studio, which will impact many of our colleagues immediately. We are giving notices to everyone whose roles are affected. This restructure has not come easily, and truly has been the last resort to ensure Phoenix Labs can survive, and thrive in the long term. It’s impossible to put into words how deeply we value every talented individual who have contributed their hard work and passion to every project at our studio. 

“We are doing all we can to help our departing team members in this interim period and encourage any studios looking for incredible talent to speak with the one-of-a-kind people that have been a part of Phoenix Labs’ journey.” 

Phoenix Labs released its latest game, Fae Farm, back in September, and Dauntless before that in 2019. 

These layoffs join a string of other disheartening 2024 layoffs and closures, which now total more than 10,000 in just the first five months of the year. 

Square Enix announced earlier this week it will begin layoffs as part of “structural reforms,” starting this week. 

Earlier this month, Xbox closed four Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin. Take-Two Interactive closed Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games alongside major layoffs to its indie-publisher Private Division label. That same week, we learned Deliver Us Mars developer Keoken Interactive had laid off nearly its entire staff. 

Elsewhere in the year, EA laid off roughly 670 employees across all departments, resulting in the cancellation of Respawn’s Star Wars FPS game. PlayStation laid off 900 employees across Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and more, closing down London Studio in the process, too. The day before, Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games announced it laid off 90 employees. 

At the end of January, we learned Embracer Group had canceled a new Deus Ex game in development at Eidos-Montréal 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 laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, as well. Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees in January, and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees. 

Lords of the Fallen Publisher CI Games laid off 10 percent of its staff, Unity will lay off 1,800 people by the end of March, and Twitch laid off 500 employees. 

We also learned that Discord had laid off 170 employees, that layoffs happened at PTW, a support studio that’s worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company, Thunderful Group, let go of roughly 100 people. Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people, too. 

The hearts of the Game Informer staff are with everyone who’s been affected by layoffs or closures. 

[Source: Polygon]