Gaming layoffs continue to cause havoc in the industry with both big-name studios and indie teams being impacted around the world. Whether these layoffs are due to climbing costs or poorer-than-expected game performances, the numbers continue to gradually increase. One of the latest victims to be hit is Surgent Studios, a company founded by British actor Abubakar Salim. What makes matters worse is the first-ever game by Surgent was only released just more than three months ago.
Rough Waters at Surgent Studios
Surgent Studios took to social media to make an official announcement about the layoffs on July 2nd. That post partially reads, “Unfortunately, Surgent has joined the growing number of games studios impacted by layoffs this year with just over a dozen people affected. It’s a difficult time in the games industry, but we remain incredibly proud of our entire team’s work on ZAU and of the praise it has received from players and critics alike.”
Abubakar Salim shared that post and added his personal input on the unfortunate situation. He thanked all those who have checked in on him and praised the work that Surgent’s team has done for the past four years involving Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Both he and others with Surgent stated that the focus now is to support those who have been affected and to hopefully get them more work, which could be crucial for these indie developers.
Theories Surrounding the Situation
While there has been no official word on just why these layoffs took place, speculation and theories are spreading about the matter. Many are seemingly putting part of the blame on one of the companies Surgent Studios worked with when making its premiere game. Sweet Baby Inc. is a narrative development and consultation studio with a mission of adding more diversity and inclusivity within video games. This practice is known as DEI, which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Critics of Sweet Baby Inc. accuse the company of forcing game studios to add more diversity to the degree of entire narratives and characters to be changed. They also accuse Sweet Baby Inc. of allegedly using scare tactics to reach their goal. These criticisms span so far across the Internet that there are groups and social media pages dedicated to spotting games affiliated with the company. If you look at posts about those games or reviews, you will likely see the phrase “Sweet Baby Inc. detected” and a call for people to not buy the games.
Other Studios Experiencing Gaming Layoffs
Whether they’re because of boycotts, economic troubles, poor-performing games, or any other reason; gaming layoffs have impacted more than 100 studios already in 2024. We’re only just more than halfway through the year. some of the largest companies impacted so far are Activision Blizzard, PlayStation Studios, and Take-Two Interactive. The need to cut costs has even led to branches of companies like Bethesda being shut down altogether.
No studio, giant or small, seems to be able to avoid this troubling trend that seemingly has no end in sight. For smaller teams like Surgent Studios, situations like this one can be devastating and hard to come back from. For some, it might be the first sign of more job losses to come or even full bankruptcy. However, there might just be hope on the horizon for the teams who will persevere and make it out of the storm. We just have to wait and see.
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