Recently, Scavenger Studios, known for their recent game Season: A Letter to the Future, let go a majority of their workers, leaving just about sixteen remaining according to Kotaku. This information was revealed via an email from the Scavengers Studio CEO Amélie Lamarche on June 20.
The reason for the massive layoffs seemingly comes down to a lack of profits gained from the release of their last game. Season: A Letter to the Future released earlier this year on PlayStation 5 and PC to mostly positive reviews, receiving review scores such as an 80 on Metacritic and an 8/10 on Gamespot. The problem did not seem to be the quality of the game, it seemed to stem from the quantity of games being sold.
Since the release of the Season: A Letter to the Future earlier this year, only about 60,000 copies have been sold. This was less than the eight-year-old company had hoped for as Lamarche revealed to Kotaku that:
“Given the current global economic context and Season’s financial results, we have been left with no choice but to make the difficult decision of downsizing the studio to a smaller, sustainable group of game developers. Unfortunately, this means parting ways with all but approximately sixteen members of the Scavengers Studio team. It’s not a decision I took lightly, it’s been several months and effort of just trying to see what we could do, who we could talk to, how we can leverage more funds.”
The studio claims they are still trying to provide financial and psychological support, as well as extended health coverage benefits to those laid off, which they hope will help cover the time they will currently be out of a job for.
Unfortunately, this comes following the suspension of Scavenger Studios Creative Director and Co-Founder Simon Darveau and Amélie Lamarche, Scavenger’s CEO who temporarily stepped down. They left following a report which detailed accounts of sexual harassment and abuse allegations that allegedly fostered a toxic work environment, reportedly done by Darveau and Lamarche. The result of the investigation done by Solertia Consulting Group absolved the company on some of the allegations but faulted the studio for the lack of communication, among others. Lamarche was reinstated as well as Darveau in a smaller, non-managerial role. Darveau left Scavengers Studios earlier this year.