IO Interactive look set for layoffs as their external partner for Project Fantasy pulls out

Sigh. It’s another one of those days, as layoffs are essentially imminent yet again, this time at 007 First Light and Hitman developer IO Interactive. The studio shared a post earlier today regarding their as-of-yet not formally revealed Project Fantasy, in which they shared that their “relationship with an external partner… has come to and end.”

The post opens by saying that there’s mostly been positive news from IO Interactive at the moment thanks to the success of First Light, before detailing the split with said partner. “This means we have to adapt to this new reality and its short-term consequences, including staffing decisions, which is what is happening as we write this update, and we are fully committed to supporting those affected through this challenging transition,” the post explains. I’ll translate that from avoidant corpo speak for you: layoffs will be happening.

IO Interactive go on to say that “Project Fantasy is a game, a world, and an IP that we absolutely love and remain 100% committed to, now and in the future,” and that it will “see the light of day,” which sounds like they have no plans to cancel the game at the very least. I imagine not much consolation for those that will be affected by these layoffs.

Not much has really been shared about Project Fantasy since its announcement in 2023. We know that it’s online and… that’s kind of it. Some documents that were shared as part of the legal battle between Microsoft and the US Federal Trade Commission in the same year did also reveal that the game was for Xbox Game Studios publishing, at least as of 2021. Given that Xbox are currently doing a bit of an upheaval ahead of reported mass layoffs, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this external partner IO Interactive speak of was still Xbox, and that this game is another casualty.