Last month, publisher Kwalee released their first game made in house as part of their studio Kwalee Labs, Luna Abyss, a first-person bullet-hell platforming adventure game about a prisoner exploring a derelict megastructure. Now, it appears that the entire team that made the game has been laid off.
Over on LinkedIn, Kwalee Labs CEO Hollie Emery shared word of the layoffs, writing, “We’re enamoured by the love and support it received both by our industry and critically by journalists and media. Whilst we faced many challenges along the way, it has been the highlight of our careers – and we are incredibly proud that it has finally seen the light of day (thank you to everyone who believed in us!). Unfortunately as of yesterday, the entire team has been made redundant; a decision that was completely outside of our control. As a result, the entire team are available for work as of today.”
Emery also shared links to the numerous team members affected by the layoffs (and what essentially sounds like an effective closure of the studio), so the post is worth looking at to offer any kind of support. There was no indication as to why these layoffs have taken place, only that Emery was “so proud of what we were able to achieve with Luna Abyss, for such a small team, in a genre that is incredibly difficult to hit a good review score in!” As is par for the course with layoffs, it’s likely that the game didn’t meet some kind of target.
It’s obviously a shame to hear about. Luna Abyss has a real strong look about it, with some wonderfully imposing environments and a strong art direction. There’s some touches of Returnal and Nier in there, but doesn’t look like it veers into pastiche territory. Hopefully the affected devs will land on their feet, and solidarity as always.
