Although Humble Games helped to publish some fantastic games such as TemTem, SIGNALIS, and Mineko’s Night Market, July 2024 saw a huge change within the company that caused uproar across social media. It’s no surprise that there was uproar, as Humble Games announced out of the blue that they had laid off their 36 staff in a decision to “restructure” the company. There was a lot of denial that they had laid off all of their staff, but those who worked within the company began to come forward and say their entire team was gone. Today, Eurogamer announced that the staff who were laid off in July are now partnering up with Ziff Davis, the parent company of Humble Games. Considering that the choice to lay off the staff most likely came from them, this is a bit of a baffling choice to make.
As a result of this partnership, it means those who were laid off from Humble Games now get to continue working with them while working under their new label, the Good Games Group. Considering the harsh choice made to lay off the staff who were working there and helping publish the game, it seems like a bit of a strange decision now to enlist the help of those in the company.
While the games they will be working on and developing will be published under the Humble Games name, it’s said that the workers at Good Games Group made this decision to help build up their network of indie developers. With how rough it is in the games industry right now, a decision like that makes perfect sense; it allows familiar faces to work with indie developers who may be treading uncertain ground and also allows the developers to put in a good word for the employees working at the company, which could lead to other projects being taken on in the future.
Although the decision to work with a company that rid them of financial security seems like a bizarre move, it seems like they are now using the collaboration to sway it in their favor, as the header on the website shows off some of the previous games they worked on over at Humble Games, such as Supraland, SIGNALIS, and Ring of Pain. At the moment, it’s unknown what games Good Games Group will be responsible for, as none of their projects are currently listed on the website.
Humble Games hasn’t yet made a statement about the new collaboration, but it’s uncertain if they will or what role either company will be playing in this collaboration.
