Airship Syndicate, the studio behind titles like Darksiders Genesis and Wayfinder, has announced its second round of layoffs in less than a year. The latest job cuts will affect 16 employees, with Airship blaming the situation on the “difficult challenges facing our industry.”
The studio initially laid off 12 people in January, two months after its publishing deal with Warframe developer Digital Extremes (which was behind Airship’s free-to-play fantasy game Wayfinder) fell through. Wayfinder has since been redesigned and re-announced as a single-player title; the revamped game finally launched in June.
Unfortunately, its restructuring does not seem to have given Airship enough momentum. Statement shared on LinkedIn Announcing the studio's latest layoffs, CEO Joe Madureira and President Ryan Stefanelli explained: “In light of the difficult challenges facing our industry, we have had to make the difficult decision to let go of some incredibly talented Airship team members, including 12 full-time employees and four contractors.”
Madureira and Stefanelli note that the pay cuts they took in January during the studio's first round of layoffs remain in effect and that “both are contributing personal funds to help Airship continue to operate with the remaining staff.” According to today's announcement, 50 employees remain at the studio following this latest round of staff cuts and Airship is “committed to delivering on Wayfinder's roadmap and developing future projects.”
“We extend our deepest gratitude to all of our employees, both past and present,” Madureira and Stefanelli concluded, “for their hard work and dedication.”
Today's news continues a devastating 2024 for the video game industry, which has already seen More than 12,000 employees have lost their jobs since the start of the year. Back in March, GamesIndustry.biz's Chris Tring, writing for Eurogamer, took an in-depth look at the circumstances that led to such a massive amount of job cuts in recent years.