Indie Games publishing label Humble Games recently announced that it has laid off several employees in order to “restructure” operations. While the official statement did not specify how much of the staff have been laid off, senior quality assurance lead Emilee Kieffer claimed that the entire staff was laid off. Additionally, in a recent Aftermath article, an anonymous former employee corroborated that all of Humble Games’ staff were laid off. “[Humble Games parent company] Ziff [Davis] is trying to spread the idea that it’s a restructuring to save face, but that’s a lie,” the former employee said. “No one from [Humble Games] survived the layoffs, nor will they have anything to do with game launches moving forward.”
Former Humble Games creative lead Chris Radle also added on LinkedIn added:
“Operations have been handed off to a third party consultancy. NO staff are left. Do not believe this tailored message written by the parent company of Humble Games, Ziff Davis, who are trying to mitigate pushback. This was once again a failure of leadership across the board, and once again hard working talented staff are paying the cost for their poor decisions. Every ex-employee is being gaslit by this narrative, and it’s so disrespectful.”
However, according to a representative speaking to Gematsu, the company “will not be shutting down, and that ongoing projects and upcoming releases are not affected and will continue to be supported and published by Humble Games.”
The official statement from Humble Games regarding the layoffs:
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.
We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team’s contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started 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. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated.
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for more gaming news.
