HomeNews
Life is Strange and The Expanse devs lay off 20% of studio in second wave of job losses in under a yearDeck Nine blame “the game industry’s worsening market conditions”
Deck Nine blame “the game industry’s worsening market conditions”
The developers behind theLife is Strangeremaster, spin-offsBefore the StormandTrue Colors, andThe Expanse: A Telltale Series, Deck Nine, have laid off 20% of the studio’s staff due to “the game industry’s worsening market conditions”. The latest job losses are the second wave of layoffs at the company in the last 12 months.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings
Deck Nine took up the mantle for developing the Life is Strange series from Dontnod with Chloe-focused prequel Before the Storm in 2017, later going on to introduce a new protagonist in Alex Chen andmore mature tonewith 2021’s spin-off True Colors. In 2022, the studio revisited the original Life is Strange and Before the Storm with theRemastered Collection.
Most recently, Deck Nine co-created an episodic game based on novel series-turned-TV show The Expanse in collaboration with Telltale Games,marking that studio’s rebirthafterthe original Telltale’s closurein 2018. The new Telltalesuffered their own layoffs last yearas part of the games industry’s ongoing butchery of its talent.
Deck Nine’s layoffs saw a fifth of the studio lose their jobs yesterday, according to a statementposted to Xthat blamed “worsening market conditions” for the “difficult decision”.
“These people are amazing, talented, and awesome developers," the studio said. “They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly. Please hire these people if you can, they’re amazing.”
pic.twitter.com/rEVSYzwLQp— Deck Nine Games (@DeckNineGames)February 27, 2024
pic.twitter.com/rEVSYzwLQp
According to game directorStephan Frost, Deck Nine’s leadership cut their pay in order to minimise the number of layoffs, estimated to be around 30 people.
“This is the strongest team D9 has ever been and it absolutely sucks that the industry is in the state that it is presently,” Frost added.
Deck Nine’s layoffs joinmore than 900 layoffs across Sony studiosincluding Naughty Dog, Guerilla and Insomniac this week;the closure of Saltsea Chronicles studio Die Gute Fabrikafter funding struggles; andexpected job losses at The Quarry and Until Dawn developers Supermassive, in a 2024 that has already seen an estimated 7,000 layoffs across the games industry in under two months, compared to around 10,500 during the whole of last year.
