The makers of Super Lucky’s Tale, Playful Studios, this morning announced publicly that a “significant” amount of the company’s staff will be laid off as a result of “continued changes in the global video game marketplace”.
The redundancies come after Super Lucky’s Tale‘s port to the Nintendo Switch, and less than a year after the company raised $33.6 million ($US23 million) for creating more spectator-centric games.
In a post on their website, Playful founders Paul Bettner and Katy Drake Bettner said the company would be adopting a “streamlined production model based on distributed game development”, meaning the studio would be relying more on remote workers and contractors.
Since 2012, we have had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with some of the most talented developers in our industry, to create unique, beloved IP, and cherished original games. We’ve created and shipped multiple titles on a range of platforms to millions of players worldwide, and we are incredibly proud of the work our teams have accomplished along the way. During this time we have taken significant risks to grow our studio, we’ve dared to dream big, and we’ve worked hard to pursue these amazing opportunities together with our friends.
Continued changes in the global video game marketplace require Playful to evolve its approach to the development and production of our current and future projects. The studio will be pivoting to a more streamlined production model based on distributed game development and dynamic, project-based teams.
As part of this transition in our operating model, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to significantly reduce our full-time staff, effective today. We are truly heartbroken to be parting ways with many of our friends and colleagues. These are people who have poured their hearts into every game Playful has created, who have supported us and each other every step of the way, and have truly made this studio what it is today. We will be working closely with each person affected by this transition to help them move forward.
Around 76 employees have Playful listed as their employer on LinkedIn, but it’s not known yet precisely how many employees will be affected by the redundancies. The company’s careers page still has listings open for 16 positions, ranging from a contract QA role to engineering, combat design, FX and audio.
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