Friday The 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds developers Illfonic have announced that they have laid off an unspecified number of staff as they “realign” on “a refined strategy.” The statement gave no reasons for the layoffs, other than a cursory gesture toward “the state of the industry.”
“Today we had to accept the harsh reality that the state of the industry is impacting us here at IllFonic,” wrote CEO and co-founder Charles Brunghardt. on LinkedIn. “It is with the deepest of hearts that cuts have had to be made to our teams today as we have realigned ourselves on a refined strategy. There is a lot of talent in this group and if you or your team are hiring, please contact us. people can be linked to open roles.”
The announcement does not confirm which teams are affected, but Illfonic has offices in Colorado, Washington and Texas, US. The company employed 78 people in 2019, although this was before the establishment of the Texas office.
Like Matt Wales comments at Eurogamer, it’s possible the layoffs have something to do with the expiration of licensing rights for Friday the 13th, which forced IllFonic and publisher Gun Media to pull the video game adaptation from sale last December. The studio’s most recent asymmetrical horror games, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, don’t appear to have found a following, judging by the latest Steam activity charts.
IllFonic had high hopes for Killer Klowns, despite the relative obscurity of the license, and considered it more of a game for everyone than Friday The 13th. “We found that asymmetrical horror games aren’t always for the hardcore gamer, so we really tried to balance that to make it fun and interactive for all types of playstyles,” CCO Jared Gerritzen told Nic in May. “We found with [our previous games]fans who don’t play video games but like IP will come in. With Klowns, this is the chance to bring that ‘dodge and escape’ instead of that hardcore shooter mentality. I think we have a very good balance.”
I don’t know what the ratio of new hires to layoffs will be in 2024, but it has certainly been a “tough” year in terms of job losses. According to one unofficial trackerAbout 14,000 people have lost their jobs this year, compared to 10,500 in 2023. Yesterday, Ubisoft said goodbye to about 277 people during the “sunsetting” XDefiant, their live service shooter. Brendy keeps an unofficial list of the terrible euphemisms companies use in their official statements to soften the layoff pill. To me, the most ominous thing is that Take-Two is ‘rationalizing’ the livelihoods of hundreds of employees. But ‘refining’ your staff is also quite unpleasant, with the suggestion of removing the impurities during the smelting process.
Good luck to all the IllFonic developers who are looking for work now.