Singularity 6, the studio behind the cosy MMO Palia, is the latest developer to suffer layoffs. Just under 50 developers, around one third of the company, have been let go according to Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter.
Environmental artist Daphne Fiato tweeted "Whelp, I've been laid off," following up with "49 people Thanos snapped". Other Singularity 6 folk joined to reveal they'd also been laid off, including Brian Ernst who tweeted they'd been with the developer for five years. One developer revealed via LinkedIn that they'd been given the news while on vacation, according to MMORPG.com.
Singularity 6 is yet to publicly address the layoffs, with its last Twitter post happening on April 3, one day before they occurred. It's the same situation for the official Palia account.
Palia only just arrived on Steam on March 25, following a stint as an Epic exclusive. The free-to-play MMO has generated some praise for its cosy vibes and its stress-free cycle of farming and building, but it's also been criticised for its slow progression, reliance on timers and limited multiplayer elements. Its development status has also led to some confusion—it's not in early access, and the store page implies a feature-complete game, when in reality it is still in beta. On Steam, it's currently sitting at just over 3,700 user reviews with a "Mixed" rating.
The studio joins a painfully long line of developers to have nixed a portion of its staff this year. Despite only being four months into the year, the number of layoffs are close to reaching last year's count. It was estimated that around 10,500 developers lost their jobs last year, according to the Game Industry Layoffs tracker. The number is already up to around 8000 estimated job losses right now, with more undoubtedly on their way given the volatility of the industry.
We compiled our own layoff chart earlier this year, showing the trajectory of 16,000 layoffs from January 2023 to January 2024. Since the chart was published, companies like Relic, Certain Affinity, Sony and Blackbird Interactive have joined the list.
