Lower than a 12 months after releasing its acclaimed Riven remake, Cyan Worlds introduced final week that twelve of its workers had been laid off in a press release on Bluesky.
That represents round half of the studio in keeping with the assertion, which provides: “We’re having to weigh the longer term well being of our studio in opposition to the month-to-month realities of sport growth in 2025.” It says that management was “ultra-transparent” with workers in regards to the state of the video games trade and the “uneven waters” that led to those layoffs, and Cyan Worlds said that “the information of a layoff was not a shock to the crew.”
The assertion was adopted up by a submit which lists the portion of affected employees who consented to having their data posted, with Cyan Worlds calling on “any fellow builders on the lookout for world-class expertise to achieve out.”
Lead visible designer at Cyan Worlds Claire Hummel responded to the information in a submit on X, saying “God this trade sucks proper now. I am not affected by this layoff, however numerous completely wonderful individuals had been—I’ve labored with this crew for a 12 months and a half now, and I might write any one among them a glowing advice on the drop of a hat.”
I hate it. I hate it a lot. 💔 https://t.co/lwECjeeTokMarch 28, 2025
Layoffs have plagued the video games trade on an particularly gut-wrenching scale within the final a number of years, and it seems like Cyan Worlds has been hit notably exhausting. The latest assertion mentions its rapid precedence is to “restabilize the studio,” and although it is one of many longest standing indies within the enterprise, proper now its “honest hope is to proceed to be round.”
It is exhausting to know the way latest video games Firmament and the Riven remake bought, although the previous was crowdfunded on Kickstarter and the latter acquired rave critiques, impressing us at PC Gamer to the tune of a 90% evaluate from contributor Kerry Brunskill. The remake of its most well-known sport, Myst, simply acquired a free new world solely every week in the past, getting the form of long-term help remarkable within the house of ’90s journey video games.
Whereas that is a part of a protracted sample of layoffs all around the trade, it is galling to see a historic indie like Cyan Worlds hit so exhausting. It is not recognized what the studio’s subsequent undertaking is, however hopefully it will be capable to see it by means of.