Airship Syndicate, the studio behind titles like Darksiders Genesis and Wayfinder, has announced its second round of layoffs in less than a year. The latest job cuts will affect 16 employees, with Airship blaming the situation on the “difficult challenges facing our industry.”
The studio initially laid off 12 people in January, two months after its publishing deal with Warframe developer Digital Extremes (which was behind Airship’s free-to-play fantasy game Wayfinder) fell through. Wayfinder has since been redesigned and re-announced as a single-player title; the revamped game finally launched in June.
Madureira and Stefanelli note that the pay cuts they took in January during the studio's first round of layoffs remain in effect and that “both are contributing personal funds to help Airship continue to operate with the remaining staff.” According to today's announcement, 50 employees remain at the studio following this latest round of staff cuts and Airship is “committed to delivering on Wayfinder's roadmap and developing future projects.”
“We extend our deepest gratitude to all of our employees, both past and present,” Madureira and Stefanelli concluded, “for their hard work and dedication.”
Today's news follows a devastating 2024 for the games industry, which has already seen over 12,000 employees lose their jobs since the start of the year. Back in March, GamesIndustry.biz's Chris Tring, writing for Eurogamer, took an in-depth look at the circumstances that led to such a massive amount of job cuts in recent years.