Evening Star, the studio behind Penny’s Big Breakaway, has announced layoffs that will affect six team members. Chief Technology Officer Hunter Bridges shared the news on X/Twitter and expressed deep regret over the decision, stating, “This isn’t a choice we wanted to make.” Bridges attributed the layoffs to the “volatile market conditions in the games industry” and the company’s operational challenges, which ultimately led to this difficult move.
Evening Star’s CEO, Dave Padilla, echoed these sentiments in a LinkedIn post. He explained that the studio has been navigating the same turbulence that has shaken the industry over the past 18 months. “Despite our best efforts to secure another project to keep our team together,” Padilla wrote, “we are in the unfortunate situation of having to lay off some of the folks that have worked with us for the last few years on Penny’s Big Breakaway.”
Padilla praised the team members who were let go, calling them “best-in-class developers who shipped a critically beloved console title.” He emphasized their talent and encouraged other studios to consider hiring them, adding, “I cannot stress enough how amazing they all were to work with, how talented they are in their respective disciplines, and how lucky any team would be to have them.”
He concluded his post by urging anyone with open opportunities to reach out, whether for a reference or to discuss potential positions for these developers.
The layoffs at Evening Star reflect a broader trend of job cuts in the gaming industry this year. With one quarter left in 2024, nearly 13,000 developers and publishers have lost their jobs. Microsoft cut 650 Xbox staff last Thursday, among the most notable recent layoffs. However, these cuts did not result in the cancellation of any games or the closure of studios.
Earlier this year, Microsoft also laid off 1,900 employees in January, bringing their total number of layoffs in the last year 2,550. The ongoing wave of job cuts has underscored the financial difficulties facing game developers and publishers across the industry.