Surgent Studios, the team behind Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, has announced it's had to let go of "just over a dozen" workers in a round of layoffs. It was spotted by Game Developer that multiple former members of the developer were posting to LinkedIn about being let go, and now the news has been confirmed by the studio's Twitter account.
In a post, it said: "Unfortunately, Surgent has joined the growing number of games studios impacted by layoffs this year with just over a dozen people affected." It goes on to explain the developer "remains incredibly proud" of its work on the team's debut game and it's now focusing on supporting those who have lost their job and continued support of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU.
Abubakar Salim, the founder of Surgent Studios, has set up a Twitter thread detailing those who have been let go in an effort to help them find new employment. "I am so proud of what the team have achieved over the course of these 4 years. When things got tough, every one of them stood so strong, it was inspiring," Salim said. "So to be delivering this news today really sucks. I know we're not alone here, but that doesn't make it easier."
Released for PS5 in April and added to PS Plus Extra on day one, we awarded a 5/10 rating in our Tales of Kenzera PS5 review. "Tales of Kenzera: ZAU tells a touching, personal story of family, grief, and loss, but it's wrapped up in a game that makes appreciating that narrative a lot harder than it should be," we concluded. "A Metroidvania in only the most basic of ways, its combat and platforming are spoilt by basic design and structure, as well as controller issues and frustrating one-hit kills."
[source x.com, via gamedeveloper.com]
Comments 8
That’s a shame.
I recently just played through Zau and although it wasn’t my favorite game, it was decent enough and kept me interested through out.
So many layoffs in the industry lately. I wonder if we'll start to see less games coming out soon, when its such a risk to release them.
We're at the halfway point of the year and there's still layoffs in the industry. Such a shame.
This game was honestly released at the wrong time. As a story-based Metroidvania, it came right after Ubisoft pulled an unexpected revelation in Prince of Persia. I suspect people were still full on the genre when this one launched, and, if they weren’t, Animal Well threw the genre into a blender and was yet another revelation. Had this one released last year or later into the summer, I think it would’ve had a better shot. It’s sad to see an obvious passion project failing expectations
Layoffs in the game industry are common. This is not a post 🐼🎤 phenomenon. It’s just that they were not reported as often as nowadays, unless it came from a high profile studio.
After a game is finished, most studios don’t even know what to do next, especially if their game was not financially viable. Obviously they have to cut people off to maintain the rest until a new project comes along.
Problem is that some high profile studios wipe out entire divisions to stay afloat because they got too ambitious and started hiring left and right. A shame indeed, but again, quite a common occurence.
You would have thought the money they got from PlayStation Plus would have covered the budget and anything else would be profit. Don't think this game was expensive to develop.
In the end, you have to make a good game, in this era of great indie games, a "just okay" game like this one just doesn't cut it anymore.
Wow. Totally saw this coming. The market is too saturated at this point so unless you make an amazing product or one that has a lot of marketing best prepare for layoffs.
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