Red Rover Interactive, Norway-based game development studio, has recently announced that it will start layoffs at its headquarters in Oslo, Norway, as well as its UK office in Newcastle upon Tyne. The announcement was further corroborated by LinkedIn posts from affected employees.. The layoffs were announced after a Red Rover game, Enginefall, got a lot of attention during this year’s Steam Next Fest. The game attracted a significant number of playtest participants, saw significant wishlist growth, and received widespread coverage from gaming media across the board.
The timing of the layoffs is what makes the announcement surprising. Layoffs are often preceded by commercial disappointments or cancelled projects. However, Red Rover received a lot of positivity after Enginefall‘s public showcases instead. Regardless, the studio said that the layoffs are meant to be a preventative restructuring: rather than being a result of immediate financial danger, Red Rover wants to reduce its burn rate and improve the studio’s long-term financial sustainability while continuing development. The number of employees being affected has yet to be officially disclosed in any capacity, meaning we can only go off of employees announcing the end of their time with Red Rover themselves on websites like LinkedIn. The development of Enginefall also appears to be continuing, as nothing from the official announcement or employee reports suggests that the game is being cancelled or delayed.
Looking at the general elements present in employee announcements of termination, little suggests that Red Rover itself has internal issues. These departure posts do have positive elements, mostly expressions of gratitude for the development team and giving it praise in spite of the layoffs. Even the negative elements lack heavy sentiment, being limited to expressions of disappointment about being let go and stress about needing to immediately seek out new work. Notably, none of these departure posts contain any public accusations of mismanagement at Red Rover, a criticism that has accompanied some other game industry layoffs in recent years.