Humble Games, the publishing division of digital retailer Humble Bundle, says it has “made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations” amid reports it has laid off entire staff, but insists it is “not closing”.
Humble Games was formed in 2017 and has published 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 today, however, several Humble Games employees took to social media to report layoffs at the company. “At 9am today,” business development director Nicola Kwan wrote in a LinkedIn post, “36 Humble Games employees were told we were being laid off and the company was closing.”
“Another year, another break!” added Emilee Kieffer, Head of Quality Assurance at Humble Bundle, in a separate post. “Today is my last day and the last day of my entire team at Humble Games.”
In response to those initial claims, a Humble Games spokesperson has confirmed that the company is “restructuring” but insists that it is “not closing down” and that its upcoming releases (which include Monaco 2 and Wizard of Legend 2) will not be affected. The spokesperson added that they are “unable to comment on staffing figures at this time” 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 our operations,” the company wrote in a statement sent to Eurogamer. “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 Humble Games’ operations will have no impact on the operations of Humble Bundle.”
“We are fully aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply sympathize with everyone affected,” he continued. “The contributions of our team have been first-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we began publishing them in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.”
“Supporting our development partners and helping 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 deeply appreciate it.”
Humble Bundle, along with Humble Games, was acquired by Ziff Davis in October 2017 and has operated under the IGN Entertainment subsidiary since then. 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 former owner Reedpop.
2024 continues to be a devastating year for workers in the video game industry, with over 10,000 people having lost their jobs so far, compared to the 10,500 video game industry workers who were laid off throughout all of 2023.