The wave of layoffs within the games industry does not stop at the “Life is Strange” makers at Deck Nine Games. The studio announced today that 20% of its employees will need to look for new jobs.
The bad news in the gaming industry never ends: After Sony announced yesterday that it would be cutting hundreds of jobs in its PlayStation division, it was now announced that the „Life is Strange“-Macher Deck Nine Games will have to lay off a significant portion of their workforce. The team that was responsible for “Life is Strange: True Colors” in recent years, among other things, had to lay off 20% of its staff (via IGN).
A message that the studio itself announced today in a statement X/Twitter confirmed. The message states that due to the “deteriorating market conditions,” those responsible ultimately felt forced to take this step with a heavy heart.
Deck Nine “did not make the decision lightly”
The following lines then say: “These people are amazing, talented and great developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not make this decision lightly. Please hire these people if you can, they are great.”
The message from Deck Nine Games does not reveal exactly how many people will be affected by the layoffs. As colleagues from IGN have learned, the development studio's team is said to have consisted of 100 to 130 people before this wave of layoffs.
Various affected parties responded to Deck Nine Games' announcement on social media. Elizabeth Ballou, who worked as a narrative designer at Deck Nine Games, has been particularly active so far. In your Tweets For example, she writes that those responsible only gave the employees a two-week severance package, regardless of their time with the company.
Interesting detail: According to Ballou, various people who held senior positions within the studio, such as executives and directors, also accepted salary cuts. Apparently around 10%. However, she writes immediately afterwards that she is not sure about the amount of the losses. Furthermore, she doesn't know whether all people in management positions at Deck Nine Games would have been affected.
As early as May 2023, Deck Nine Games had to employ 30 people dismissedlike the development studio opposite at the time GameDeveloper.com confirmed.
Deck Nine Games, as the studio has called itself since 2017, has developed various games in its more than 25-year history. The team's most famous recent works include “Life is Strange: Before the Storm” (2017), “Life is Strange: True Colors” (2021) and most recently “The Expanse: A Telltale Series” (2023).
Deck Nine-Statement:
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