Former developers of one of 2024’s best Soulslikes are stuck in a purgatory of unpaid salaries

Former staff of Enotria: The Last Song developers Jyamma Games have revealed to RPS that they’re owed months of unpaid salary, following layoffs at the company last year. They’ve shared an inside look at a troubled independent studio dealing with payment delays, multiple changes of direction, and general confusion that stretches back to spring 2025.

Founded in September 2019, Jyamma are one of Italy’s better-known indies. Based in Milan, they worked on several mobile games before breaking into PC and console development with Enotria, released in September 2024. We liked Enotria, a sunny and theatrical action-RPG with a distinct vocabulary of elements and status effects, set in a world of gorgeously distorted Italian folklore. RPS reviewer Caelyn Ellis deemed it “a delightful Soulslike palette cleanser to chase down Shadow Of The Erdtree with”.

According to former workers who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, Jyamma were working on a sequel to The Last Song when the salary payment delays began over March and April 2025. At the time, staff were told the situation would be resolved quickly.

In April, however, CEO Giacomo Greco put the Enotria sequel on hold. Instead, he announced plans for a trading card game adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem La Divina Comedia, aka The Divine Comedy – an exciting prospect, following Enotria’s explorations of Italian art and culture. Then, in May, Greco revealed to the rest of the studio in an email that Jyamma was experiencing financial difficulties, and would not be able to proceed with scheduled payments.

In a copy of the email to staff, shared with RPS, Greco attributed Jyamma’s cashflow problems to delayed collection of revenue from sales of Enotria on PlayStation across February, March and April. The company had already faced challenges bringing the game to Xbox Series X and S versions, with Microsoft promising to “improve our processes” after Greco criticised them on Jyamma’s Discord.

The May email to staff stresses that “these issues are specifically related to the last couple of months,” and mentions a forthcoming injection of cash from a government tax credit “within a couple of months.” There is also talk of “several initiatives to attract private investments through a dedicated platform, which will allow us to diversify our funding sources and ensure greater long-term stability.”

According to a copy of another email shared with us, this time written by administrative manager Anastasia Tsybakova on June 13th, outstanding payments for April had been “fully paid.” But sources tell me that Jyamma management repeatedly postponed monthly payments through to August 2025, with one person commenting that “communication became inconsistent and unclear.”

According to my sources, Greco announced another massive change of direction in July: the Divine Comedy adaptation would now be an action-RPG, like Enotria. Greco also told staff that Jyamma were in talks with Neowiz about potential funding. In another email sent to staff in July, he wrote that the Lies Of P publishers had “expressed strong interest” in publishing either the Divine Comedy adaptation or Enotria 2, with “concrete updates” expected by September or October.

The email also mentions discussions with investors about taking Jyamma public on the NASDAQ stock exchange – “a complex process that could take 6-12 months.” In the event of Jyamma going public, the email suggests that Jyamma might “explore” distributing company shares to team members with stock benefits options. Finally, the email touches on some “long-term strategic opportunities” in the shape of very early discussions with Amazon and Tencent.

There is some existing public corroboration for the reports of delayed payments. Shortly after Jyamma screened a trailer for their Divine Comedy game at Gamescom Opening Night Live in August 2025, Italian streamers Blur and IlMasseo published allegations that the studio still owed them payments for promotion of Enotria: The Last Song the previous year.

Things came to a head in October. According to sources, salaries for July were finally paid. Greco also announced that the studio would develop a 2.5D Enotria spin-off alongside the Divine Comedy game. In an email sent October 1st, he confirmed that Jyamma were “actively engaged in a deal and public listing process” on NASDAQ, to be finalised in “five-six” months.

However, he also revealed plans for mass layoffs “to make the company more sustainable,” with the promise to “ramp up again” and discuss rehiring staff once investment had been secured. According to one source, Jyamma made two separate rounds of layoffs in October and December. My sources noted with some bitterness that on the day of the original layoff announcement, Jyamma posted “Happy Birthday to us!” on their Instagram.

As of February 9th, sources tell me that some current Jyamma staff are getting paid. But several former team members are apparently still owed salary payments for August, September and October.

It’s a depressing state of affairs for such an outwardly promising studio. Enotria is both a well-made game and a rich contribution to the wider compendium of Soulsliking – in foregrounding Italian folklore, it talks back to Dark Souls studio FromSoftware’s representations of European culture and architecture.

I’m similarly enthused by what I’ve seen and read of Jyamma’s Divine Comedy adaptation, in which “dark forces subvert the promises of the poem,” hinting at some degree of creative antagonism with the source text. Still, all of that comes second to ensuring that your staff have secure livelihoods.

Approached for comment about these allegations of delayed payments, together with the reports of changes of project direction and publisher negotiations, Jyamma CEO Giacomo Greco offered the following general response:

Enotria was an ambitious project, entirely self-financed, self-produced, and self-published, born from the passion of our team and several industry veterans, with the clear objective of establishing Jyamma Games’ identity through the development of original IPs rooted in Italian culture.

The company has always acted with the well-being of its collaborators as a priority and has consistently worked to retain as many team members as possible. We confirm that we have never ceased compensating our collaborators. While some payments have been rescheduled, all commitments continue to be honored, as they have been regularly over the past six years. Following a necessary restructuring to ensure long-term sustainability, the current team is fully aligned with the studio’s resources, and there are no payment delays.

Regarding the matter involving Italian streamers, Jyamma Games has always honored and will continue to honor all agreements made. The parties involved are working together to ensure that all agreed obligations are fulfilled.

Jyamma Games refrains from commenting on any rumors or speculation regarding projects or partnerships, and any information regarding its initiatives will be shared when appropriate.

We’ve contacted Blur and IlMasseo for an update on whether they’re still owed any payments by Jyamma.