Indie developers working with boutique publisher Humble Games - which helped bring Signalis, Void Bastards, Unpacking, and more absolute gems to store shelves - were apparently just as blindsided by the news of mass layoffs as the rest of us.
Humble Games staff began to spread news of layoffs just yesterday across social media, while parent company Ziff Davis later called it a "restructuring of operations" that was "difficult but necessary." The company reportedly let go of all in-house Humble Games staff, opting to have the publisher's upcoming slate of games managed by an unnamed third-company instead. It should be noted that Humble Bundle remains unaffected.
At least a handful of developers who have games signed under Humble Games (both released and upcoming) found out about the news via social media, too. "It sucks that even devs that published games with Humble are learning this right now, with no prior warning," tweeted Tiani Pixel, co-developer behind the fantastic Unsighted. "I'm afraid of what this will mean not only for the future of our game, Unsighted, but all games they've published. Who's gonna keep the store pages up? We don't know yet."
"This will have drastic consequences not only for Humble employees, but all studios that worked with them and need the income from the games," they continued, before assuring that her team is "in a comfortable position" with its upcoming stunner Abyss X Zero, which "is doing some great numbers."
We are devastated to hear today about the apparent closure of our publishing partner, Humble Games. We were lucky to work with really wonderful people who were laid off in November and today and hope they can all land on their feet and find amazing new jobs elsewhere quickly. pic.twitter.com/dqwopqmdHAJuly 23, 2024
"My sincerest best wishes to all the former Humble Games staff, several of whom helped make Unsighted what it was," Abyss X Zero co-developer Fernanda Dias also tweeted. "Thank you so much for working so hard on so many amazing games. This is incredibly heartbreaking news holy shit."
Ghost Song's mostly-solo developer took to Reddit to say that "for a publisher, you couldn't have asked for a better group of people, always kind and supportive." The developer also "hoped to work with them again one day, but alas."
While developers didn't know what to make of the news at first, multiple studios behind upcoming games have since come out to clarify that everything is sort of business as usual. Stunning Metroidvania Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus came out just last week, and developer Squid Shock was quick to point out that the team "will continue working on Bō as if nothing changed."
The teams behind beautiful co-op platformer Never Alone 2 and magical action game Wizard of Legend 2 both announced that development would continue on their sequels unaffected. Exit 73 Studios stated it would "continue supporting #BLUD with upcoming content updates now and in the future."
We are surprised and saddened to hear today’s news about Humble Games. We’ve enjoyed working with a ton of talented folks there over the past couple years, and wish them all the best.In the meantime, the Exit 73 Games team will continue supporting #BLUD with upcoming content…July 23, 2024
The recent layoffs at Humble Publishing deeply saddened us at Dead Mage. We will miss the incredible team we've had the pleasure of working with. Despite these changes, we remain fully committed to making Wizard of Legend 2 a fantastic game. We're listening to your feedback and… https://t.co/gZdCdI6DHyJuly 24, 2024
https://t.co/k3fJVy2fZY pic.twitter.com/jm3ANYzPbUJuly 23, 2024
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