More games industry layoffs, as Humble Games and Digital Bros downsize

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Layoffs have been announced at Humble Games and Digital Bros, the parent of the 505 Games publishing brand.

Recently, and depressingly, it seems that hardly a day goes by without more layoffs being announced in the games industry. This week we’ve already heard that Unity plans to slash more jobs after already laying off 900 staff in 2023, and now Humble Games and Digital Bros have announced that they will be cutting jobs, too.

VideoGames.si first reported the news of layoffs at the digital storefront and publisher Humble Games, and the company confirmed the report earlier today. “Yesterday was a difficult day for Humble Games and we can confirm that we had to say goodbye to valued colleagues,” Humble Games said in a statement. “Like many companies this year, we have experienced trends that required this restructure in order to ensure our long-term success.”

The statement concludes by saying: “Humble Games remains focused and committed to working with amazing indie developers to bring their experiences to players around the world in the years ahead.”

No information on the number of people affected by the layoffs was provided.

505 Games published the recently released Ghostrunner II. Credit: 505 Games

Separately, the Italian games company Digital Bros has announced an organisational review, which it expects to result in a workforce reduction of 30 percent.

Digital Bros is the parent company of 505 Games, the publisher behind titles such as Control and Ghostrunner 2. The Italian firm put out a statement saying that the “videogame market has evolved since the pandemic to be more selective in terms of new games, with consumers increasingly reverting to well established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods.” As a result, Digital Bros is refocusing on “sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budgets [sic] productions”.

This has led to Digital Bros reconsidering the number of projects it has in development, sparking a restructuring program that will result in “a reduction of approximately 30% of the global workforce, with the predominant portion concentrated within the studios”.

In addition to 505 Games, Digital Bros’ subsidiaries include the studios Kunos Simulazioni (the makers of Assetto Corsa), AvantGarden (Last Day Of June), Infinity Plus Two (Puzzle Quest) and DR Studios (Terraria), along with the indie publisher HOOK.

It appears that some of the layoffs might have already happened. On 31st October, Sumo Digital tech artist Nina Klos tweeted: “Sad to hear previous company I worked at (dr studios/505 games) had a round of lay offs today, and a lot of my former co-workers are now looking for game jobs.”

On the same day, 3D artist James Ward tweeted: “So unfortunately I’m a part of the layoffs at DR Studios/505 Games. If anyone knows of any Environment Artist roles going, I have a few years experience.”

DR Studios has yet to make an official statement, and it’s unclear how many people might be affected by the layoffs. The Milton Keynes-based studio was behind console and mobile versions of the game Terraria, and is currently working on an unannounced console shooter.