Black Forest Games, the developer behind the recent Destroy All Humans! remakes and the upcoming TMNT: The Last Ronin, has reportedly lost half its employees following a round of layoffs. A headcount in 2023 suggested the team had 110 staff members, meaning it could be down to roughly 55 workers after the cuts. Speaking with Kotaku, it's claimed creative directors and most "if not all" managers will be keeping their jobs.
This is just the latest report of developer layoffs in the industry, with other setbacks at Outriders developer People Can Fly, streaming website Twitch, and game engine company Unity. A GDC report claims 35 per cent of game studios have been affected by layoffs during the past year, with Kotaku reporting over 3,900 employees have lost their jobs since the start of 2024 alone.
Having successfully remade the first two Destroy All Humans! games for PS5 and PS4, developer Black Forest Games set its sights on a new, original game set in the TMNT universe that's a follow-up to the recent movie, named The Last Ronin. Upon the announcement, it was said the game will be out this year. However, this round of layoffs will likely push the project back.
[source kotaku.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 26
Woah… it’s starting to look like the mass dumping of ET Atari carts in the early 80’s.
Bloody hell. The layoffs aren't even daily anymore. It's multiple times per day now
I bet they're going to use a lot of outsourcing and or ai to finish the game.
TMNT: The Last Developer.
Welp this game is getting canned…
It’s definitely sounding like the gaming bubble is set to burst with the continuous lay-offs. It’s really sad that we get more news about lay-offs than gaming announcements these days.
I do wonder if these layoffs correspond with an undisclosed intention to replace a great deal of hand crafted development with AI implementation.
Aside from the obvious layoffs as a result of poorly received release: If you look at the timing of these massive layoffs coming off some of the most successful and profitable times in gaming the last few years, it does feel as if this is less about the bs reasonings given and more about the endless growth model and aggressive ways to keep that line moving north. AI is an easy way to cutout massive dev costs.
AI may great for cost but Terrible for talented game designers, creativity, and game quality going forward. Sadly, the typical upper corporate tier or shareholder sociopath only cares about the former. This and making many dev positions contract gigs just sucks.
The development community really needs to start making moves to unionise at this point.
@AdamNovice absolutely! I think every company should be required to have a union by law, but that's just a pipe dream in today's international political climate.
When corps make profits they're privatized, when corps can get subsidies they represent themselves as "job creators", when the shareholders aren't happy corps cut staff to "ensure the companies future" (future meaning next quarter, not actual future), when corps loose money these losses are socialized and when corps pay taxes they're suddenly located on remote tax haven islands.
But yeah, we support the free market because we all are just "temporarily embarrassed future millionaires".
As much as I want a brand new TMNT game to come out and be the best game it can possibly be, I want people to keep their jobs even more.
@AdamNovice 100% agreed
@tameshiyaku And now MS are letting nearly 2000 people go. Morale in the development community must be at an all time low.
@AdamNovice and it's all just ceos shooting from the hip to look good for the next financial quarter, not for long-term profitability. It's so sickening.
@tameshiyaku Preach my friend.
This sucks, surely, but just a note... this storyline/premise has nothing to do with the recent movie. It's an adaptation of a recent comic book arc.
@MFTWrecks is correct. There is a separate TMNT game in development that is a follow-up to the recent movie.
So it's canceled cuz I don't see how u make a game with half ur employee count
@AdamNovice Agreed. Otherwise this will keep happening.
Hi hope a lot of these job losses are down to bad or decisions from their corporate leaders to chase trends & push stupid things like NFTs or games as services, instead of being actual leaders & becoming the trends.
It looks like all the actual people that are the meat & potatoes of the company lose their jobs while the incompetent ***** pat themselves with big bonuses & payrises with the money they’ve saved by firing people.
Video games are an art form and art will never have a good relationship with capitalism.
They may benefit each other from time to time but it always ends up abusive.
This sounded cool. Hopefully it all works out
Unfortunately the economic climate is real bad all over the world and Unfortunately many teams grew way above what they should of and this is the result once the economy went to .....
I feel bad for the people losing their jobs.
Its funny to think that money began as just a trading system and now it completely governs us to actually live in this world. It'll only end when we are wiped out.
I would not be surprised if the Embracer Group is going to implode to big and the developers pay the price.
@Bentleyma Is Black Forest making two TMNT games?
@Sherlock- No, Its Outright Games doing it.
@Bentleyma Either way, the news is incorrect, since The Last Ronin isn't a follow-up to the recent movie. It's two separate games being made by two different companies and they mention only one.
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