Dauntless and Fae Farm developer Phoenix Labs is the latest studio to be hit by a round of layoffs. In addition to the job cuts, the team is also reducing their in production lineup.
In statements provided to GamesIndustry.biz, a Phoenix Labs confirmed the cuts, saying that they had “evaluated all ongoing development projects” and decided to “focus on fewer development projects”. They emphasize that this decision should help improve success for Fae Farm, which was recently pushed to late 2023, as well as Dauntless.
These moves come a couple of months after a buyout that saw Phoenix Labs become independent from parent company Garena. Garena acquired the independent developer in 2020 after the successful release of Dauntless. The layoffs add up to about 9% of the studio’s employees. Some were reassigned from their now-canceled projects to other jobs within the company, but they didn’t have room for everyone.
That game is Phoenix Labs’ only published game, but Fae Farm (which we previewed last fall) is still in production for the Nintendo Switch. The cozy sim is exclusive to that platform.
There’s no word on just how many projects may have been put on hold or gotten the axe entirely at Phoenix Labs, but it does seem that they’re going to concentrate on those two for the immediate future. With Fae Farm set for release this year, it makes sense to have that be a major focus.
The representative said that the laid off employees will get severance and extensions on their benefits, as well as job placement assistance. This is just the latest studio to experience layoffs and some reduction or slowing in production as a result. Layoffs have hit a wide range of studios and publishers, including CCP Games, Amazon Games, Microsoft, and NCSoft over the past year, among the big companies.
