Last year was an exciting and busy time for Playful Studios, with the release of New Super Lucky's Tale on the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, though, we're sad to report the company has had to lay off a portion of full-time staff, effective immediately.
In an open message on the Playful's website, founders Paul Bettner and Katy Drake Bettner said it was an "incredibly difficult" decision to make and explained how they were "truly heartbroken" to be parting ways with their friends and colleagues.
These are people who have poured their hearts into every game Playful has created, who have supported us and each other every step of the way, and have truly made this studio what it is today.
The studio will be working closely with each person affected and reflected on the incredible opportunities it had been given over the years to collaborate with some of the most talented developers and create unique and beloved IP.
We’ve created and shipped multiple titles on a range of platforms to millions of players worldwide, and we are incredibly proud of the work our teams have accomplished along the way. During this time we have taken significant risks to grow our studio, we’ve dared to dream big, and we’ve worked hard to pursue these amazing opportunities together with our friends.
The founders say Playful will evolve its approach to development and production and will be pivoting more towards a streamlined production model:
Continued changes in the global video game marketplace require Playful to evolve its approach to the development and production of our current and future projects. The studio will be pivoting to a more streamlined production model based on distributed game development and dynamic, project-based teams.
On behalf of the community here at Nintendo Life, our thoughts go out to everyone personally affected by this news.
[source gamasutra.com]
Comments 36
Rip hard workers, sucks your games didn't do good enough.
That's too bad, they probably shouldn't have expanded so much so quickly.
"The founders say Playful will continue to evolve its approach to development and production of current and future projects – and pivot more towards a streamlined production model based on distributed game dev, and "dynamic" project-based teams."
That's not what they're planning to do in the future, that's what they're doing NOW. "Pivoting to a more streamlined production model" is the exact reason they're laying these people off. They're basically saying that their current development process is outmoded and these positions are unnecessary or redundant. I think it might be useful to rephrase that and point out that it's not a commentary on the success or failure of their games.
They should all be super proud of the games they've made, because they are all really good. It's unfortunate that their games didn't do as good as they had hoped for more deserved.
super sad to hear this. I wish the best of luck to everyone involved.
Poor lads... game making is expensive
Don't go eShop only....
“...dynamic, project-based teams.”
Sounds like they are going the freelance route, hiring people on a per project basis. My industry is already almost entirely that way, and a lot more are going that direction. The gig economy.
In other words, the second game didn't sell anywhere near as well as the first.
So sad to hear. The people at Playful are so kind! Hopefully, everyone affected finds their footing soon ❤
Sorry to hear that. Did super lucky not sell well on the switch?
Management should be first to go!
Well now I feel like a jerk for not buying Super Lucky's Tale at full price...
NSLT, eh? Played well enough (got Super Mario Sunshine vibes from the music and interactions), just needed some polish on the character designs and presentation. Something a bit more palatable...in general. Hope everything somehow goes well or better for everyone involved.
Read ‘Blood, Sweat, and Pixels’. The games development world is competitive and harsh.
I was waiting to pick up Super Lucky during eshop sales, but didn't at the end coz the discount was only 10%.
I wanted the game, I tried the demo, was disgusted with the performance (Framerate drops to low 10s... Especially when paused), and ended up not wanting it. Sorry.
A real shame. The game is a very nice throwback to earlier 3D platformers and has some real polish to it.
Well, at least they tried. Their Microsoft deal did not give them much.
Man, this sucks. I LOVED New Super Lucky's Tale so much (game has loads of personality) and wanted it and the team behind it to do better.
Shame. NSLT is great, much better than the original on Xbox.
Very good game. Uneven difficulty. I believe the third or fourth world boss was just close to impossible for me.
I’ve gone through numerous layoffs in my working life. They express regret but businesses love it. Free up payroll and at then at the simple click of a button post vacancies to the connected masses. Rinse repeat.
Well I bought the game thinking I was getting a Super Mario 64 type game, and for the first two worlds I did. But then it turned into platform jumping. Moving platforms, spikes on platforms, platforms that break under your feet etc. Boring 🥱
maybe I'll help them out when they reduce Super Lucky's Tale to about a tenner
Unfortunately quality games like this aren’t appreciated by the masses anymore. Just gamers who recognise brilliance.
We can argue if the game didn't sell well or we can visit their studio to know half the company wasn't busy after the game was released so they let them go.
There are a lot of foxasvots and lucky is the best.
I'm sorry to hear this – especially since NSLT is rather a special game.
“a more streamlined production model based on distributed game development and dynamic, project-based teams.”
Translation: we’ve found cheaper developers overseas which will be contracted in and then got rid of when they’re done”
I had just recently downloaded and started the demo, and was really having a good time, thinking I might buy it at some point in support of the team behind it (and to have some more simple fun, obviously).
@BAN
I hope you don’t think NL actually take our comments here seriously and fix up factually incorrect articles.
Does not happen. Once the articles are written they are fixed. Inaccuracies, bias and spin all stay and won’t be fixed.
@the8thark Not true, there was that one time.
Great group of people hope they all get new chances. Nintendo should look to expand and bring in some western teams.
Well, that was super unlucky.
It was a valiant effort but ultimately, Super Luckys Tale was well made but was lacking in personality and style -it was good but did not stand OUT on any level. Basic personalities, basic enemies, basic soundtrack that just didn't pop out among all the other platformers out there.
I have Super Lucky's Tale on Xbox One X. I liked it more than Super Mario Odyssey which I found a bit boring by Mario's high standards. Super Lucky's Tale needs a real sequel with open worlds and swimming abilities but otherwise it's a lot of fun and has very smooth controls and great script, visual art and music.
Too bad some games are so overrated and some others so underrated.
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