Phoenix Labs’ 2023 troubles aren’t getting any easier: Both its CEO and COO have apparently just stepped down from those positions.
As we’ve been chronicling, Phoenix Labs was at one point working on around 10 new games as of last year, and then in February the studio announced it had secured investment to buy itself back from Singapore-based Garena, though we never learned who the investors and new owners were. By spring, the company was struggling with mass layoffs (a reported 9% of the entire company, including the Director of Corporate Communications) and the cancelation of several of those undisclosed games, as well as the delay of Fae Farm and dramatically slowed development on Dauntless.
Now, according to reporting from GIbiz, Phoenix Labs CEO/co-founder Jesse Houston and COO Jeanne-Marie Owens are both resigning from their roles to assume advisory positions instead. They apparently follow the departure of two other co-founders, Sean Bender and Robin Mayne, who left the company outright “earlier this year.” Phoenix Labs’ spokespeople say Houston and Owens are stepping down for “personal reasons.”
Houston referred to the recent launch of Fae Farm as one of multiple “amazing” titles in its pipeline. It is unclear how well the game is performing on Switch, but it generated plenty of controversy and has but a small Steam presence right now. We’re also still keeping a close eye on Dauntless, which recently revealed an overhaul update for next summer following many months of limited development.
A new CEO has not been announced, but Owens will be succeeded by VP of product development Ian Johnson.
