Game Developer has learned that eight developers from 11 Bit Studios were let go in December 2023, and it went without mention by the Frostpunk 2 creator.
Recently, former studio writer Anna Sokalska explained that it has been “nine months after layoffs at 11 Bit, [and] I’m still searching for a job.” At 11 Bit, she was a narrative designer on an unnanounced project.
Speaking to that project, a spokesperson for 11 Bit told Game Developer that the project had undergone “production changes,” which led to the reductions. “Several people were let go or switched to other teams,” they said.
Why do we know (or want to know) how many layoffs happen?
Generally, layoffs (or the threat of them) can be high-profile news, either because of their scale, significant departures, or the sheer amount of them at a time.
But not every studio is open about when it cuts staff. The news can be damaging to their reputation, invite harassment onto those let go, or spur discussions about what leadership did (or didn’t do) to prevent them from happening.
Last year, for example, Harebrained Schemes quietly laid off a significant portion (“80 percent or so,” claimed an ex-worker) of its staff. The reductions were done that summer ahead of the launch for its then-upcoming title, The Lamplighters League.
Paradox Interactive, then-owner of Harebrained, later confirmed the layoffs. At the time, these were caught up in Paradox writing off Lamplighters as a $22 million loss just a week after release, and the game already being deemed a commercial failure.
But back then, Paradox never explained why it elected to cut staff as the game was in its “last phase” of development. At the beginning of 2024, Harebrained fully split off from Paradox and became independent again.
Later that month, BattleTech and Shadowrun: Dragonfall director Mike McCain returned to Harebrained as an executive producer after spending a few years working at Netflilx and Sony Animation.
11 Bit Studios’ reasons for letting eight employees go are nowhere near as extreme as the conditions faced by Harebrained Schemes. It represents a more humdrum—though still frustrating—reason for layoffs: sometimes, a project isn’t working out the way a company thought, and it decides the solution is to reduce staffing.
Update: This story previously incorrectly stated that Anna Sokalska referred to the unnamed 11 Bit Games project as “Gord.” We have updated our reporting to make it clear the layoffs related to an unannounced project.