Six Foot studios, the creators of the space combat game Dreadnought that launched on PS4 and PC have been hit with major layoffs. As reported by Gameinformer, the studio CEO Matt Ballesteros told his employees in a company meeting that there were only enough funds to keep going until mid-October. He gave everyone the full support of Six Foot studios and its resources to help those that may want to leave ahead of time, and to know that if they chose to do so there were no hard feelings.
Dreadnought unfortunately didn’t make much of a splash when it launched on Steam, bringing in mixed and low scoring reviews. Because of this, the studio wasn’t able to recuperate the funds put into the game and therefore had to do some restructuring. This all started out as a rumor, when sources at the studio close to employees of Gameinformer informed them that Six Foot will be letting some employees go to keep from going under. Six Foot has released an official statement confirming what is happening:
“In August, Six Foot informed its staff of the upcoming potential for major changes to our company structure, including continued development of Dreadnought as a live product. Everyone on the games team was given the option to stay on and continue working or begin searching for other opportunities with the full support of the company and the aid of our staffing team, while still receiving pay in the interim. New updates on the company’s status were delivered to the full team every two weeks from there.
Today we regrettably confirm a reduction of about a third of our game dev workforce. We’re continuing to make available the full resources of our company to try to help those affected and their families land on their feet as quickly as possible. Â
We remain committed to Dreadnought’s ongoing development, growth, and the pursuit of new projects. We are also dedicated to remaining active in helping our affected family to transition as smoothly as possible.”
2018 has been shaping up to be a woeful year for developers and studios alike, with closings of TellTale, Capcom Vancouver and Boss Key Productions. I hope those who have been affected by all of this find a good studio to call home.
