UPDATED 24/7/24: Humble Games’ “restructuring” will see the brand’s current projects supplemented by a third-party video game consultancy, it has been revealed.
“I want to make this perfectly clear: this is NOT a restructuring of operations,” Chris Radley, former creative lead at Humble Bundle, wrote on LinkedIn. “This is a complete shutdown of Humble Games. Operations have been outsourced to a third-party consultancy. There are no employees left.”
Radley said the description of Humble Games’ layoffs as a restructuring was “disrespectful” and suggested that Ziff Davis’ statement was written by artificial intelligence. On social media platform X, Michael Douse, publishing director at Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian, also suggested that the statement was generated by artificial intelligence.
Separately, Aftermath obtained a recording of the call in which Humble Games employees were informed that the 36 people would be losing their jobs. In the recording, Steve Horowitz, president of Ziff Davis’ technology and procurement division, confirmed that the remaining projects would be completed by consulting firm The Powell Group.
“We will be engaging a third party to help us manage the upcoming slate of games, as well as the back catalog,” Horowitz said. “As a result, all positions within Humble Games will be impacted.”
Eurogamer has contacted Ziff Davis to find out more.
ORIGINAL STORY 07/23/24: Humble Games, the publishing division of digital store Humble Bundle, says it has “made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations” following reports it has laid off its entire staff, but insists it is “not closing down”.
Humble Games was founded in 2017 and has gone on to publish a significant number of acclaimed titles including Stray Gods, Signalis, Slay the Spire, A Hat in Time and Eurogamer’s 2021 Game of the Year, Unpacking.
Earlier in the day, however, several Humble Games employees took to social media to announce layoffs within the company. “As of 9am this morning,” Nicola Kwan, head of business development, wrote in a LinkedIn post, “36 Humble Games employees were informed that we were being laid off and the company was closing.”
“Another year, another layoff!” added Emilee Kieffer, senior quality manager at Humble Bundle, in another message. “Today is my last day and my entire team’s last day at Humble Games.”
In response to these initial statements, a Humble Games spokesperson has now confirmed the company’s “restructuring”, but insisted that it is “not closing down” and that its upcoming releases – including Monaco 2 and Wizard of Legend 2 – will not be affected. The spokesperson added that they “cannot currently comment on headcount at this stage” when asked how many employees had been affected by the layoffs. Today’s news follows an unspecified number of job cuts at Humble Games last November.
“In these challenging economic times for independent game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure its operations,” the company wrote in a statement provided to Eurogamer. “This decision was not taken lightly; it required much deliberation and careful consideration, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Furthermore, the restructuring of Humble Games’ operations will have no impact on the operations of Humble Bundle.”
“We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has had on our team members at Humble Games and we deeply sympathize with everyone affected,” he continued. “Our team’s contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we began publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.”
“Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority,” Humble Games concluded in its statement. “We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this difficult time. We are deeply grateful.”
Humble Bundle, alongside Humble Games, was purchased by Ziff Davis in October 2017 and has since operated under the subsidiary IGN Entertainment. Eurogamer and its sister sites, including Rock Paper Shotgun and GamesIndustry.biz, have been part of IGN Entertainment since May, when Ziff Davis acquired Gamer Network from previous owner Reedpop.
The year 2024 continues to be devastating for video game industry employees, with over 10,000 people having lost their jobs so far. In comparison, 10,500 video game industry workers were laid off in all of 2023.
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