It’s been announced that Phoenix Labs, a small indie developer that created Fae Farm and Dauntless have now laid off the majority of the studio in an announcement made on LinkedIn. It’s uncertain how many staff were still working at Phoenix Labs during this time, as they also had layoffs in May 2024, where over 100 staff were laid off, and all projects were canceled. This was so they could focus solely on Dauntless and Fae Farm. Below is the message left by the company on LinkedIn today.
“Today is another difficult day at Phoenix Labs. We have made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations.
We recognize and deeply appreciate the contributions of every individual impacted. Their talent, dedication, and creativity have left an indelible mark on our company and our games.
We will share more details in the coming weeks about what this means for Dauntless and Fae Farm. For now, our focus is on supporting those affected through this transition.
To our industry peers, we encourage you to reach out to these exceptional individuals – they are some of the best in the business.”
At the moment, the full number of layoffs hasn’t been announced, and as the statement says, details regarding Dauntless and Fae Farm will be released in the coming weeks. However, the mention of them in the announcement gives a sense of foreboding and that the games are likely to lose support or Dauntless will be taken offline due to lack of resources or revenue. Of course, this is all speculation, and it could be that those games will continue to be worked on, with updates released in the future.
These layoffs come just two years after being acquired by the blockchain firm Forte Labs. The dealings that came with being acquired by a blockchain firm led to a lot of questions and tense environments within the company, such as the fact that they were told to keep the purchase a secret, with former employees having to sign NDAs.
After this happened, Dauntless launched on Steam but was immediately criticized by those who played it due to the in-app monetization and erasing any previous progress made by players thanks to the Awakening update. As a result of this update, Dauntless currently sits at “Overwhelmingly Negative” on Steam.
Dauntless was highly successful when it was first released in 2019, with the game initially launching on the Epic Game Store, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It was a title funded and published by Epic Games. For the time, cross-platform functionality was a selling point of Dauntless. However, that is increasingly more common nowadays and is no longer a special feature for players to look out for.
Already, this month has seen a significant amount of layoffs, with Ubisoft also laying off staff today and closing one of their studios. It doesn’t look like it’ll be slowing down any time soon.
