Free-to-play MMO Palia and developer Singularity 6 have announced a 35% reduction in staff, despite not having a full release yet.
The continuation of layoffs in the gaming industry still impacts many. The latest update came from Palia developer Singularity 6, who just confirmed and made a statement that they had made the “difficult decision” to cut about 35 percent of their staff. Workers from the studio began sharing news of the layoffs at the end of last week as well. But a statement was made to IGN that confirmed all doubt. The free-to-play devs recognized the work of those who had been let go, and certain business decisions had to be made.
To provide some context to Palia, it is a free-to-play cozy life sim MMO that had been in development five years prior to its public PC beta that went live in August last year. It was also launched on Nintendo Switch in December before hitting Steam on March 25 where it remains in early access. So far, the game received mixed reviews on Steam, primarily due to bugs and the high cost of cosmetics. Our first look at the game back then explained that it was initially described as “Breath of the Wild meets Animal Crossing.”
It seems like the staff will be somewhat taken care of, as the statement said the staff laid off will have their “severance” included with “work-placement and career guidance assistance, and retainment of all company-provided development equipment.” While it was unclear why a game that has not been fully released would be cutting its staff, it could be speculated that Larian Studios‘ publishing director, Michael Douse, said something interesting about the recent wave of layoffs in gaming.
He noted the mass redundancies “avoidable” and suggested, “none of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt.” Douse talked to Game File, “[The layoffs] are an avoidable fu*k-up. That’s all they really are. That’s why you see one after the other. Because companies are going: ‘Well, finally. Now we can, too. We’ve wanted to do it for ages. Everyone else is. So why don’t we?’ That’s really kind of sick.”
The instability of the industry has seen more and more of these moves from popular gaming companies. It would not be an overstatement that the COVID-19 pandemic affected business structures significantly and has been to the detriment of the staff members. While Palia has no official release date for a full release yet, it is unclear how this recent mass layoff will affect the game’s quality of life and game support.
Here is the full statement that Singularity 6 provided:
“Following Palia’s release on Steam, we evaluated the support needed to deliver the highest-quality gameplay service for long-term stability,” reads the statement. “We made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce, which impacted around 35 percent of our talented and hardworking team members. We value their contributions and are committed to supporting them throughout this process, including severance, work-placement and career guidance assistance, and retainment of all company-provided development equipment.
This decision was not made lightly, and comes after careful consideration of our development and business needs to support Palia and its community. We remain committed to delivering passion in imagination, and maintaining the dedication and creativity that our community expects and deserves. We appreciate your understanding and support of our studio and affected team members.”
