League of Geeks, the developer behind the acclaimed Switch game Armello, has announced that over 50% of its staff have been made redundant.
In total, 31 people have been laid off following "unprecedented withdrawal of funding opportunities" within the industry, along with rising operation costs and poor Early Access sales. As a result, plans for a full release of Jumplight Odyssey (which wasn't announced for Switch) have been put on hold due to the loss of the entire team. The release of Solium Infernum in the new year, however, has not been affected.
In speaking with GamesIndustry, biz, the studio's director and co-founder Trent Kusters has confirmed that the staff affected by the layoffs will receive access to a qualified therapist along with full support in locating new jobs. The Jumplight Odyssey team will also receive all profits from the game for the next year.
In what Kusters describes as "the darkest time in League of Geeks' history", the studio had been in talks to receive funding that would have kept it afloat through 2028, however, this fell through within the space of just a few weeks.
The directors have taken full responsibility for the situation, with Kusters stating "This is our fault. At the end of the day, we're the directors of this business. It's our responsibility to ensure that our products and our team are protected. It's not lost on us that we've landed them in this situation and that it was our responsibility to avoid this, no matter what kind of boogeyman we could point to".