On July 23, Humble Games, an indie publishing company owned by Humble Bundle, decided to lay off 36 employees from its team following the release of its game Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus. Humble Games claims that the company is not closing but is undergoing a "restructuring" and that their upcoming projects will not be affected by this decision.
It didn't take long for former employees to take to social media to air their grievances. With employees claiming that the company is closing down and not restructuring as they try to cover it up. According to a post by business development manager Nicola Kwan on LinkedIn, "36 employees were informed today that they are being laid off and the company is closing down." In another post, senior QA Emilee Kieffersaid , "Another year, another mass layoff. This year, it's my team." While in a post by Christ Radley, he claims that this is not a restructuring, and that Humble Games operations have been transferred to The Powell Group.
A Humble Games spokesperson responded, "We made this difficult decision to ensure stability and support for our developers in their upcoming projects. And the operation of Humble Bundle will not be affected. We are aware of the impact of our decisions on our former employees and are working to make this transition as smooth as possible. Our priority is to support our former team members.".
Humble Bundle was acquired by Ziff Davis in October 2017. Ziff Davis has also acquired IGN Entertainment Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.Biz, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun , and PCMag. Humble Bundle is a digital platform that offers bundles of games, books, software, and other content at prices set by the buyer. With a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Humble Games is known for releasing several indie games such as Unpacking, Signalis, Forager, Void Bastards, and Coral Island.
Steve Horowitz, Ziff Davis ' president of technology, who broke the news to employees, claims that the reason for the mass layoffs was rising costs and development delays. With former employees summarizing that having The Powell Group take over Humble Games operations would be less expensive than the 36 salaries of its employees.
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Source: www.eurogamer.net
