Wyrdsong developer Something Wicked reportedly impacted by layoffs

19.03.2024 - 13:31 / eurogamer.net / Phil Spencer / Will Shen / Netease Games / Chris Dring / London Studio

Something Wicked Games has reportedly laid off «most of» its staff, according to a handful of people impacted.

The studio, which was founded in 2022 by Fallout 76 lead Jeff Gardiner and Obsidian veteran Charles Staples, is currently working on its debut game Wyrdsong, described as an RPG with preternatural and occult themes.

As reported by Game Developer, on Friday, Something Wicked's senior animator Eric Webb said the studio «had to lay off most of [its] staff», himself included. He called the news «heartbreaking».

While Webb did not elaborate further on how many have been impacted by these layoffs, others affected include graphics programmer Andrew Woloszyn — who confirmed he had been «caught up in the layoffs at Something Wicked» on his LinkedIn — and lead narrative designer Jessica Sliwinski, who said she is now looking for work. Something Wicked only announced Woloszyn's appointment at the company in January.

It's unclear exactly how many staff are impacted by these layoffs beyond these posts. Eurogamer has contacted Something Wicked for confirmation.

At the least, Will Shen, who served as the lead quest designer on Starfield and joined Something Wicked Games last year, for now appears to be unaffected by the layoffs, with the developer's social media feeds still suggesting he will give a talk at GDC later today.

I'll be speaking at the Game Developers Conference next month with the incredible Daryl Brigner. We'll be talking about design collaboration throughout our careers across Skyrim, Fallout, and Starfield. <a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/GDC2024?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#GDC2024

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Something Wicked is sadly one of already many studios to be impacted by job cuts this year. In January, Microsoft announced it was laying off 1900 employees across its video game teams. In an email sent around the company, Microsoft's gaming head Phil Spencer called this a «painful decision».

Meanwhile, in February, Sony announced it was to lay off 900 people, equating to eight percent of its workforce. This included the closure of PlayStation Studios' London Studio, plus reductions made within Sony's Firesprite studio.

For more on this topic, be sure to check out Chris Dring's feature: What is going on with layoffs in the video games industry?