According to recent reports, indie publisher Humble Games has laid off its entire team of 36 staffers. While unconfirmed, employees claim that these layoffs will lead to the publisher closing its doors.
Humble Games is a subsidiary of media giant Ziff Davis. Alongside Humble Games, Ziff Davis’ gaming brands include IGN, VG24, Eurogamer, Games Industry Biz and more. While related, the charity-focused storefront Humble Bundle is a separate team and not affected by these cuts.
At the time of publishing, Humble Games has not yet commented on these reports.
Humble Games has published nearly 50 indie games and has another seven titles in development. It is unclear how these cuts will impact these upcoming games or their development teams.
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Notably, Humble Games published its most recent title, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, on July 17 — just five days before these staffing cuts.
With this layoff, the video games industry has lost an estimated 11,400 jobs in 2024 — more than 2023’s annual estimated total of 10,500.
Update (2:35 p.m. Pacific 7/23/24): Humble Games issued this statement:
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.
We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team’s contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.
Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated.”
In short, no, the company is not shutting down but is undergoing restructuring. Past and ongoing projects and all upcoming releases are not affected and will continue to be supported and published by Humble Games.
Humble Games
Update (7:15 p.m. Pacific 7/23/24): Former Humble Bundle employees have shared information about events leading up to these layoffs.
According to internal materials reviewed by GamesBeat, Ziff Davis attempted to sell Humble Games twice, including within the last year. However, neither attempt created significant interest or resulted a viable sale. The company first attempted to restructure part of its business in November 2023, but these cuts did not end up preventing today’s layoffs.
In light of these cuts, Ziff Davis hired a third-party consulting team — The Powell Group — to manage its upcoming slate of games and its back catalog. Notably, a former employee told GamesBeat that Humble Games did not sign any agreements to publish games beyond 2025.
While the parent company argues that these cuts qualify as restructuring, former employees pushed back at this characterization. One former employee told GamesBeat that Humble Games’ business model simply did not align with the rest of Ziff Davis’ other media companies and its management “did not really understand the games publishing space in the first place.”
Ziff Davis is set to report on its Q2 2024 earnings on August 7, 2024. In its previous report, the company revealed its Other revenue category fell over 50% from the same period in 2023. This category includes but is not limited to game publishing revenue.
