Ancient Forge, a Polish development studio, has announced the layoff of approximately half of its staff due to rising development costs and poor progress on new projects.
Ancient Forge is just the latest studio hit by mass layoffsin the case of half of the staff. The reasons for this difficult decision are to be found in the increase in production costs of video games and the difficulties encountered during the development of two new projects.
Ancient Forge has fired 24 of its 59 employees at the end of August, according to Polish publication CD-Action. The cuts affected both new hires and some older developers, including leads and producers.
Tough time
The layoffs come after studio bosses reported in July that looming financial difficulties. Last year, Ancient Forge doubled its workforce and expanded its development pipeline, but failed to meet its plans.
The studio has confirmed that it has laid off people involved in two projects in development: the management simulator The Constructors and a unannounced fantasy RPG with AA budget. Unfortunately, it seems that production did not go as hoped.
“Our priority is to have transparent working conditions and make timely payments to employees,” Ancient Forge said in a statement to CD-Action, adding that all laid off workers will take advantage of their remaining holidays and will receive support in finding new jobs.
Ancient Forge itself wants to focus on other games, such as the simulator Hotel Galactic, already on 80,000 wishlists on Steam after three months of announcement.
Founded in Poland in 2018 by Max Strzelecki and Dushan Chaciej, Ancient Forge is best known for its 2021 sim The Tenants.
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