Humble Games has laid off 36 employees, initially leading to many believing the publisher was shutting down. However, the company later released a statement on social media confirming layoffs, but saying that the company was not shutting down, but instead, “restructuring”.
The publisher of games like Temtem, Slay the Spire, and Stray Gods, Humble Games’ official statement says that operations will continue, “ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects”. They do have a number of upcoming games set to release, with seven titles listed on their site.
According to a new report from Aftermath, Humble parent company Ziff Davis’ Steve Horowitz told employees that they were being let go due to a number of delays, rising costs and failed attempts to sell the company. The projects that are still on the slate will be handled and released via a third party, video game consulting firm, The Powell Group.
This “restructuring”, with all of the employees having been laid off, and work outsourced, means that Humble Games is more like a shell of itself. “No one from HG survived the layoffs, nor will they have anything to do with game launches moving forward,” said one former employee.
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability…
— Humble Games (@PlayHumbleGames) July 23, 2024
Employees began taking to LinkedIn and other social media profiles to talk about the mass layoffs and to look for potential leads on new jobs. Some were vocal about the company’s statements and on their experiences there. Others were critical of Ziff Davis, as a media company, not being the right fit to run a game publisher and expecting quicker revenue.
Ziff Davis is a decades-old media company and “Humble Games publishing was just not something that agreed with their business model. They needed money. They needed it now.”
Humble Games also had layoffs back in 2023.
