People Can Fly, the developer of Outriders and Bulletstorm, recently announced that they will be laying off 120 employees and suspending or scaling back two of their projects. CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski says that “external market pressures” are the leading cause behind this grim decision. The X post also announces that the developer will suspend Project Victoria and scale down the team working on Project Bifrost.
The two projects aren’t the first ones to be impacted by this unfavorable market trend. The developer has also canceled Project Dagger, which was initially planned to be co-developed and published with Take-Two Interactive. Unfortunately, this action-adventure game was canceled back in April 2024.
The recent round of firings follows another significant layoff that occurred in January 2024. This decision impacted Project Gemini, the scope of which was reduced due to budget limitations. According to Kotaku, 30 staff working on Project Gemini have been laid off. At the same time, 20 more people were moved to other projects within People Can Fly.
It is unclear whether Project Gemini is still being worked on. The X post doesn’t comment on this project and only mentions Project Bifrost and Victoria. The CEO also states that they will redouble their efforts with “new work-for-hire engagements” while also focusing on developing a single independent game.
Wojciechowski says that while they are deeply saddened by the news, the video game market is constantly changing, and the company has to adjust to the current situation. The fans who received the news didn’t respond positively to the announcement. One fan even commented that this decision was heartless since it was announced two weeks before Christmas.
Another said it was “the same song and dance” from the gaming industry. This comment likely stems from the fact that many other gaming companies have also laid off numerous employees. For instance, Ubisoft fired the team that worked on XDefiant when they decided to shut down the newly released FPS game this December.
