We’re sad to report that layoffs in gaming and tech appear to be continuing even among the smaller studios out there. The most recent one to be hit is Bossa Studios, developer of the still-gestating PvE survivalbox Lost Skies, which laid off a third of its staff – 19 employees in total – most of whom were working in QA and production as well as other workers outside of the UK. The firings leave Bossa with a headcount of 40 employees.
Studio co-founder Henrique Olifiers said in a statement to GamesIndustry that the layoffs were a result of a “perfect storm of events” that include increasing operational costs, delayed funding for new games across the industry, and several AAA title releases that pulled focus away from smaller indie titles.
“Resulting from this blue moon situation, we had to make the difficult decision to reshape the studio to reflect the position we find ourselves in at the end of this year, focusing all our efforts now on Lost Skies,” reads Olifiers’ statement. “We often say that making games is hard, but nothing is harder than seeing people you admire being let go. Ultimately, we tried our very best to avoid being in this position, and we’re truly sorry for where we have landed.”
Work on Lost Skies did indeed continue through the last two months of 2023, as Bossa highlighted work on characters, weapons, and shipbuilding in November and talked up its latest and “most ambitious” round of pre-alpha testing in December.
