Deck Nine Games, famous for crafting The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Life is Strange: True Colors, and other narrative-focused games, just announced it has laid off 20 percent of its staff.
In a post on X, the studio said: “Like many others in the games industry right now, Deck Nine has been affected by the game industry’s worsening market conditions. Today we made the difficult decision to lay off 20 percent of our staff. These people are amazing, talented, and awesome developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly. Please hire these amazing people if you can, they’re amazing.”
The studio worked on several games in the Life is Strange series, including 2021’s Life is Strange: True Colors, 2022’s Life is Strange Remastered Collection, and the aforementioned The Expanse: a Telltale Series from last year.
2024 layoffs in the game industry
Deck Nine’s announcement is only the most recent in the latest flood of layoffs in the industry. Earlier today, Sony announced 900 job cuts across studios including Guerrilla, Firesprite, Insomniac Games, and Naughty Dog. SIE is also closing down London Studio for good.
That’s just from today. In January and February, thousands of workers in the industry have lost their jobs, in cuts affecting companies of every size, including Unity, Microsoft, Embracer, and much more.