Lower than a 12 months after releasing its acclaimed Riven remake, Cyan Worlds introduced final week that twelve of its staff had been laid off in a press release on Bluesky.
That represents round half of the studio in accordance 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 recreation growth in 2025.” It says that management was “ultra-transparent” with staff in regards to the state of the video games business 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 workforce.”
The assertion was adopted up by a publish which lists the portion of affected workers who consented to having their data posted, with Cyan Worlds calling on “any fellow builders in search of world-class expertise to succeed in out.”
Lead visible designer at Cyan Worlds Claire Hummel responded to the information in a publish on X, saying “God this business sucks proper now. I am not affected by this layoff, however lots of completely superb folks had been—I’ve labored with this workforce for a 12 months and a half now, and I might write any certainly one of them a glowing suggestion 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 business on an particularly gut-wrenching scale within the final a number of years, and it seems like Cyan Worlds has been hit notably onerous. The current 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 onerous to understand how current video games Firmament and the Riven remake offered, although the previous was crowdfunded on Kickstarter and the latter obtained rave critiques, impressing us at PC Gamer to the tune of a 90% overview from contributor Kerry Brunskill. The remake of its most well-known recreation, Myst, simply obtained a free new world solely per week in the past, getting the type of long-term help extraordinary within the area of ’90s journey video games.
Whereas that is a part of an extended sample of layoffs all around the business, it is galling to see a historic indie like Cyan Worlds hit so onerous. It is not identified what the studio’s subsequent mission is, however hopefully it’s going to be capable to see it by way of.
