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The team at publisher Humble Games has reportedly been laid off, with some 36 staff affected by the cuts. To clarify, the layoffs were made to the publishing arm, not the Humble Bundle store, where bundled games are sold to raise money for charitable causes.
As reported by PSU, Humble Games has stressed that this does not mean the publisher is shutting down and that currently ongoing projects will not be affected. In a statement provided to the outlet, a spokesperson said: "In short, no, the company is not shutting down but is undergoing restructuring. Ongoing projects and upcoming releases are not affected and will continue to be supported and published by Humble Games."
2D artist and senior QA dev Emilee Kieffer shared a post on X and LinkedIn revealing that the entire team had been let go as part of this restructure. Humble Games is responsible for bringing a bunch of excellent smaller and indie games to market, with Signalis, Unpacking, Slay the Spire, and Midnight Fight Express being just a few.
As always, we wish the best for all those impacted and hope everyone lands on their feet. Are you surprised by the size and scale of the ongoing wave of layoffs affecting the industry, even in the back half of 2024? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 22
“As reported by PSU, Humble Games has stressed that this does not mean the publisher is shutting down and that currently ongoing projects will not be affected.”
They laid off the entire freaking team. How are those “not affected”?!?!
I hope they're okay, I like some of their games, slay the spire and midnight fight express is pretty good.
Thanks, IGN. Must've given the team a 7/10 too much employees
Aftermath (fantastic site) has some more detail. Apparently all the games currently being worked on will be passed on to a third party to handle publishing. If I were a dev I'd be ***** pissed about the publishers doing this to my game.
Also, as per the Aftermath piece Ziff Davis was upset games couldn't make quick money and needed years of effort for a result. Incompetent piece of donkey crap.
Of all the "limited release" type companies, like Limited Run Games, Special Reserve Games, and Super Rare Games I liked Humble Bundle the best as a company.
Thanks for providing a physical release of Signalis so that game can be preserved in the future. Will miss them for sure.
Humble Games is a huge loss, because Slay The Spire is one of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing.
So many in here attack me in the comments because I react to all these incredibly talented teams get laid off with sadness of what takes their place.
Gacha games are being pushed in a major way by less-than-credible sources, also in here.
They are designed to pull as much time out of you as possible and to convince you to spend to get what is talked about in a current meta.
The year is halfway through and what a ***** one it has been indeed.
Horrible news. Published some great games over the years and this does signal yet another company being gutted from the inside out.
Nice of ziff davis to give IGN a news story
creating their own news now
I really enjoyed a lot of the games they published so this is such a massive shame.
I think Strauss Zelnick (Take Two) owns Ziff Davis. Expect the same lies they gave when they shut down Roll 7 and the rest of Private Division.
@TicklefistCP ohhh ffff, Ziff is Zelnick? The only swine slimier than Kotick in the festering swamp that is the games industry? I need a shower.
@breakneck Imagine if people that buy video game publishers bought aircraft manufacturers? What do you mean it'll take 15 years to design and produce a fleet of sonic jets? We promised investors roi next quarter can't you put something together in a few weeks out of cardboard or something???!!!!
I liked Signalis but the end really ruined the game for me the constant problem with not having enough space was horrendous i just quit at the ending a pity the game was fun.
@NEStalgia You get Boeing. A company known for quality that became a joke and made aircrafts that killed people.
I can't remember the last time I bought a Humble Bundle for charity, my first ever one was Dead Island, Just Cause 2 and few others for Steam back in 2012. The only game I had on my steam account was Fallout New Vegas lol, but the industry is on a downward spiral.
The game crash still might happen
Not enough to make great games and be moderately successful anymore. You have to help those poor shareholders triple their money or its all over.
I liked there statement of nothing is or will be impacted
Gotta love the consistency of the acquisition to destruction pipeline.
Man, that is awful news. They’ve published a few games that were genuine hits for me.
@zhoont But you're on an IGN site! Technically...
@breakneck LOL, true...so true...
This brings to mind the demise of another Indie Publisher Versus Evil Games literally on Xmas eve last year by Tiny Build coincidentally after announcing a mega millions investment by Atari & allegedly missed transactional payments by them after buying out Versus Evil.
As others have said,the entire staff have been gutted,publishing operations outsourced to a third party,literally the only thing remaining is the name! 🙄 A true word salad response by Ziff Davis worthy of a Strauss Zelnick or Phil Spencer double Dutch reward!
Commiserations to those affected,including in dev games finding out they've been dumped onto a new group without any warning.😕
This isn’t great news, but I’m going to take HG’s comments at face value for the time being. They’re calling this a “restructuring.” Time will tell if it’s truly that, or if this is the beginning of the end for them.
I hope everyone who was laid off is able to land on their feet and find something new and energizing in the next phase of their careers.
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