The Epic Games Store's spring sale is underway, from today until March 28th. That makes it twice as long as Steam's spring sale, which also started today. I'm not sure if that makes it twice as exciting, but here's what does: Deus Ex Mankind Divided is free to keep for the next week.
Life is Strange and The Expanse devs lay off 20% of studio in second wave of job losses in under a year
28.02.2024 - 18:35 / rockpapershotgun.com / Square Enix
The developers behind the Life is Strange remaster, spin-offs Before the Storm and True Colors, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Deck Nine, have laid off 20% of the studio’s staff due to “the game industry’s worsening market conditions”. The latest job losses are the second wave of layoffs at the company in the last 12 months.
Deck Nine took up the mantle for developing the Life is Strange series from Dontnod with Chloe-focused prequel Before the Storm in 2017, later going on to introduce a new protagonist in Alex Chen and more mature tone with 2021’s spin-off True Colors. In 2022, the studio revisited the original Life is Strange and Before the Storm with the Remastered Collection.
Most recently, Deck Nine co-created an episodic game based on novel series-turned-TV show The Expanse in collaboration with Telltale Games, marking that studio’s rebirth after the original Telltale’s closure in 2018. The new Telltale suffered their own layoffs last year as part of the games industry’s ongoing butchery of its talent.
Deck Nine’s layoffs saw a fifth of the studio lose their jobs yesterday, according to a statement posted to X that blamed “worsening market conditions” for the “difficult decision”.
“These people are amazing, talented, and awesome developers," the studio said. "They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly. Please hire these people if you can, they're amazing."
pic.twitter.com/rEVSYzwLQp
According to game director Stephan Frost, Deck Nine’s leadership cut their pay in order to minimise the number of layoffs, estimated to be around 30 people.
“This is the strongest team D9 has ever been and it absolutely sucks that the industry is in the state that it is presently,” Frost added.
The latest layoffs mark the second time Deck Nine has been hit by job cuts in under a year, after 30 staff were let go last May, and several narrative leads voluntarily resigned to minimise further losses, as reported by Game Developer at the time.
Deck Nine’s layoffs join more than 900 layoffs across Sony studios including Naughty Dog, Guerilla and Insomniac this week; the closure of Saltsea Chronicles studio Die Gute Fabrik after funding struggles; and expected job losses at The Quarry and Until Dawn developers Supermassive, in a 2024 that has already seen an estimated 7,000 layoffs across the games industry in under two months, compared to around 10,500 during the whole of last year.
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
gamerant.com
14.03.2024 / 22:19
Xbox and Final Fantasy 14 Reveal Custom Console and Controller
With the launch of Final Fantasy 14 on Xbox Series X/S just days away, Microsoft and Square Enix revealed a custom Xbox Series X console and controller as part of a giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a new Xbox hardware bundle, the Final Fantasy 14 Complete Collector's Edition, and a year-long Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.
blog.playstation.com
14.03.2024 / 22:13
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: How Nobuo Uematsu and Loren Allred created Aerith’s “No Promises to Keep”
We’ll say this up front for those of you still exploring Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s vast world: there are no late-game story spoilers here. As seen in its pre-release debut via a new trailer late last year, the action RPG’s theme song “No Promises to Keep” is performed in-game by Aerith. Behind the scenes though, the track was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer behind the iconic soundtracks for much of the Final Fantasy series, including Final Fantasy VII Remake. The song’s vocals were performed by American singer Loren Allred, who brought her spellbinding singing voice to the track, augmenting the beautiful—yet tragic—world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the epic story told within it.
gamingbolt.com
12.03.2024 / 12:11
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director Wants to “Consider Further Expansions” for Queen’s Blood
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a stellar game, and the bevy of minigames it offers has become one of its most highly praised elements. Even with nearly 30 minigames on offer, however, there’s one in particular that has proven most popular with the game’s player base by far- Queen’s Blood, which is not only an entire, in-depth card collecting and battling game in and of itself, but also comes with an entire storyline revolving around it.
eurogamer.net
11.03.2024 / 11:43
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth dev team admits it wasn't sure it could "put it all together in time"
Several of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's most senior developers have admitted it was «tough» to make the highly-anticipated sequel.
gamerant.com
10.03.2024 / 23:17
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Devs Detail the Challenges of Making the Game
In the days that followed after the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, some of the staff at Square Enix talked about the challenges that went into creating a massive project that could live up to players' expectations. Despite Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth releasing nearly four years after Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the developers expressed the concerns they had about putting it together.
gamingbolt.com
10.03.2024 / 16:37
Helldivers 2 Tops PS Store Charts for February, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Comes Second
Helldivers 2 came out of nowhere and took the world by storm, and that continues to be reflected in sales. It was the UK’s best-selling game in February, and it’s been seeing consistent growth in sales in the US as well. On top of that, the game also managed to top the PlayStation Plus charts for top downloads for the month of February. In both North America and Europe, Arrowhead Game Studios’ co-op third-person shooter was No. 1.
gamesradar.com
06.03.2024 / 21:15
Final Fantasy 14 finally launches on Xbox this month, and while the MMO is free on Game Pass there's a massive caveat
After years of anticipation, Final Fantasy 14 is at last set to launch on Xbox Series X and S on March 21. If you're a new player checking out the MMO for the first time, however, you need to understand that there's a big caveat to a special deal that Xbox is offering for Game Pass subscribers.
blog.playstation.com
01.03.2024 / 15:27
Preparing for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – Who is Zack Fair and what’s happening with the timeline?
Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are two masterfully made retellings of the classic PlayStation RPG from 1997. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second entry in the Remake project and continues where the previous title left off, hopefully bringing answers to questions posed with it. Not only is this new sequel a nostalgic experience for veterans of the 90s original, but Square Enix has crafted it to be another perfect spot for newcomers to join Cloud and the gang.
eurogamer.net
27.02.2024 / 23:19
Life is Strange: True Colors studio Deck Nine lays off 20% of staff
Deck Nine Games, the studio behind Life is Strange: True Colours and last year's The Expanse: A Telltale Series, has announced it's laying off approximately 20 percent of its total workforce, blaming «the game industry's worsening market conditions».
pcinvasion.com
26.02.2024 / 17:43
How to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth early
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is almost here, and players are too excited to wait any longer. Thankfully, if you have an extra email you won’t need to wait as long as everyone else. We’re going to Journey through Midgar and figure out how to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth early.
gameranx.com
26.02.2024 / 17:39
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Hype Grows Via Newspaper Articles and Commercials!
Can you feel it? Can you? If so, you’re likely a gamer who wants to get their hands on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth the moment it comes out on Thursday. That’s a key thing to state: it comes out on Thursday! After years of waiting after the release of the first remake title, the sequel is almost here, and gamers can’t wait to see what the title is like in full. To their credit, Square Enix has been doing its job with hyping up the game to nearly insane levels. They even released a massive number of review codes so that nearly everyone would sing the game’s praises, and it worked!