People Can Fly studio has suspended two unannounced games, triggering layoffs due to publisher friction.
From the Gears of War: Judgment and Outriders studio, People Can Fly, brings rocky news. People Can Fly studio has suspended two unannounced games, triggering layoffs due to publisher friction. One of the two projects was set to be published by Square Enix, under the working name Project Gemini. The other unannounced game was a VR game referred to as Project Bifrost. The studio is currently co-developing The Coalition’s upcoming prequel, Gears of War: E-Day, and first-person survival shooter Lost Rift.
According to VGC, People Can Fly reportedly cut over 30 developers working on Project Gemini last January. “The suspension of the Gemini project is a consequence of the fact that the Publisher has not presented us with a draft of the subsequent content rider to the Publishing Agreement covering the terms and conditions of further milestones on Project Gemini and the lack of communication from the Publisher as to its willingness to continue or terminate the Gemini project,” said CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski as posted on LinkedIn.
The miscommunication appears to be very sour with People Can Fly and Square Enix. Wojciechowski speaks vaguely about the publisher, referring to Square Enix as “the Publisher” and “the Publishing Agreement”, most likely to avoid contractual terms and agreements. An agreement on how to handle disagreements, so to speak.
“Project Bifrost was suspended due to the above and the analysis of the Group’s cash flow, which showed a lack of prospects for securing organizational resources and funds necessary to continue the production and release of this project. As a result, we have to significantly regroup as a studio and scale down our teams, which hurts the most. We wish to express our deepest regret and sadness over how these events have unfolded and our sincere gratitude for everyone’s contribution up to this point,” Wojciechowski continued.
People Can Fly celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022 and was owned by Epic Games from 2012-2015. In April, the studio also announced its cancelled co-op action RPG codenamed Project Dagger after several years of development. The company had been planning to self-publish Project Dagger after it was dropped by original publisher Take-Two Interactive in 2022.
While this is sad news for the developers facing layoffs for these two suspended projects, there is a lot of finger-pointing from People Can Fly. Is it possible that there is also miscommunication from People Can Fly’s end? Square Enix and the other publisher have not commented on Wojciechowski’s statements. Hopefully, the developers can pivot to other projects or have other work lined up after this dual project suspension.
