As if the gaming {industry} wasn’t going by way of sufficient already, one of many studios behind the beloved Life Is Unusual sequence, Deck 9 Video games, issued at this time’s newest spherical of layoffs. The studio’s announcement was issued on the heels of others at this time, like PlayStation, and yesterday with developer Supermassive.

Based on an announcement from Deck 9 Video games’ official Twitter, 20 p.c of their workers had been let go as a result of “worsening market situations.” This isn’t the primary time the studio has gone by way of one thing like this, both. In 2023, Deck 9 laid off 30 staff, with others nonetheless on the firm reporting some staff leads on the studio provided up their very own jobs to avoid wasting different workers.

Deck 9 Video games’ Sport Director, Stephan Frost, defined on Twitter that “management took paycuts” in an effort to keep away from as many layoffs as doable. However, regardless of the staff’s sturdy basis, it wasn’t sufficient to scale back it solely.

The impacted staff members had been liable for the follow-up titles to Life Is Unusual, like Earlier than the Storm and True Colours, and the newest addition of TellTale’s The Expanse. Extra not too long ago, Deck 9 revisited the unique recreation, branching off with a remastered assortment recapping the heart-wrenching tales that first started with Max and Chloe. Sadly, the studio’s historical past of manufacturing emotional, private journies shared with tens of millions alongside the legacy of LIS creators, Dontnod, didn’t shield employees in a time of rampant, industry-wide layoffs.

Deck 9 had a layoff at this time. Management took paycuts to maintain the quantity down as a lot as doable. That is the strongest staff D9 has ever been and it completely sucks that the {industry} is within the state that it’s presently.

— Frost (@StephanFrost) February 27, 2024

Sony has additionally introduced one other surge of layoffs at this time, reducing over 900 staff throughout PlayStation. Mixed with this and Deck 9 Video games’ current occasions, 2024 is certainly off to a foul begin, together with the cutbacks made with Activision Blizzard and Xbox.

It isn’t fairly clear what the longer term holds for Deck 9 Video games and the individuals remaining at corporations impacted, however hopefully, there’s nonetheless a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel.