Humble Games says it's 'restructuring,' employees say its entire staff has been laid off
According to one employee, 36 people have been let go.
Humble Games, an indie-focused publisher with dozens of games in its catalog, is "restructuring," according to a statement published on X—but that new structure doesn't seem to involve any of its current employees, or at least not many of them.
Earlier in the day, a Humble Games employee said on LinkedIn that the publisher was closing: "At 9 am this morning, 36 employees of Humble Games were told that we were being let go and that the company is shutting down," they wrote. Another employee said that everyone at Humble Games had lost their job.
The publisher's statement says that it is "restructuring" rather than closing, and that it will continue to support developers it has publishing deals with. It has not confirmed the number of layoffs.
"We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected," reads part of the statement. "Our team's contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible."
Humble Games is known for signing indie games like Void Bastards, Forager, and Signalis, and has deals with several upcoming games, including survival game Lost Skies and co-op heisting game Monaco 2. It's related to Humble Bundle, the store which popularized pay-what-you-want game bundles, but they're separate entities, and today's news will have "no impact" on Humble Bundle, according to the statement.
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability…July 23, 2024
Both Humble Bundle and Humble Games are owned by publisher Ziff Davis, which also owns gaming websites IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, and others.
Last year was a bad year for games industry job security, but the situation only worsened this year, with thousands of layoffs in January alone.