It’s getting pretty sad when you know that there will be another studio closure in the gaming industry, and it’s only a question of, “Who’s next?” Well, we know who is next, and it’s Humble Games. They were an offshoot team of the legendary Humble Bundle dedicated to showing off the best indie games and indie developers out there so that people could learn about their great titles without breaking the bank to get them. Even their homepage noted that they were dedicated to doing right by gamers while also doing right by promoting the “social impact and good” that games like these can put into the world.
However, today, it was revealed that all 36 staff members at Humble Games were being laid off and that the company itself was being shut down. That led to posts like this popping up from those who had been affected by it:
That wasn’t the only post about it, as Nicola Kwan posted on LinkedIn about the situation, further confirming it was happening and that the entire team was being let go. She was graceful in her departure and thanked those who helped the group along the way:
“Thank you for making this the best journey that I’ve had yet. I’m proud to call many of you not just former coworkers, but also friends (a testament to how incredible this team is considering we’re all remote and I haven’t met half of you IRL). I hope to cross paths again soon.”
As has been well documented at this point, the gaming industry is shrinking in the worst ways, and partially due to the people at the top thinking that the only way to make a profit is to crank out games, even when they’re not ready to be released.
Looking at people like The Embracer Group, you’ll see this kind of logic many times over. They spent billions trying to get into the industry to make a booming profit, only for one of their internal deals to backfire, and suddenly, they needed to recoup money. As such, they laid off numerous staff and closed studios because it helped them “get money back.”
They’re hardly the only ones to do so, as Microsoft spent a TON of money on the Activision Blizzard merger, then immediately laid people off and started raising prices on the Xbox Game Pass. Sony had massive layoffs and is going multiplatform with many titles. Square Enix is going through a massive restructuring, and on it goes.
Every group shutdown is bad, but this one hurts because they were truly trying to help gamers and developers, and they got cut down regardless.
