Less than per week after Frostpunk 2 received Best Sim/Strategy Game award at The Game Awards, developer 11 bit studios has ended improvement on a sport recognized internally as Project 8, and laid off quite a few workers.
Project 8 had been in improvement since 2018, in line with a assertion launched on December 17 (through Insider Gaming), and was supposed to be 11 bit’s first-ever sport “designed particularly for console avid gamers.” But the venture bumped into bother, significantly through the top of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the latest progress evaluate discovered “unresolved points and challenges that might require additional extensions of the manufacturing timeline and corresponding finances will increase to handle.”
Changes within the gaming panorama since 2018 have additionally dimmed Project 8’s prospects for achievement within the studio’s eyes: 11 bit president Przemysław Marszał stated the sport “was conceived below very completely different market situations, when narrative-driven, story-rich video games held stronger enchantment.” That led to revised gross sales forecasts, presumably within the downward path, and thus administration determined to drag the plug.
The variety of workers put out of labor wasn’t specified however 11 bit stated 37 folks have been engaged on Project 8 as of September 30, greater than half of whom can be given the chance to maneuver to different in-development initiatives, together with The Alters, which is slated for 2025. The “phased nature” of the layoffs means the ultimate discount in headcount and whole prices related to cancelling Project 8 will not be recognized till the discharge of 11 bits’ full-year report for 2024 early subsequent 12 months. An 11 bit consultant advised PC Gamer that roughly 15 individuals are being let go, and confirmed that the cuts are restricted completely to the Project 8 group.
The ugly plague of layoffs that made 2023 so terrible for therefore many sport business workers has not abated in 2024, even in its dwindling days. The state of affairs has grown dangerous sufficient that even Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, a person not precisely recognized for his eagerness to embrace controversy, acknowledged the issue at this 12 months’s occasion. December alone has seen layoffs at Warner, People Can Fly, Deck Nine, Illfonic, Ubisoft, Torn Banner, Sweet Bandits, and fairly probably others that went unnoticed within the deluge.
