Enad Global 7 has announced that 38 employees at its Piranha Games studio will be laid off after the most recent game in its Mechwarrior series, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, «performed below expectations.» Separately, the company also announced that Toadman, whose most recent release is the 2024 shooter EvilVEvil, is being closed entirely. «The team at Piranha truly delivered a high-quality game that exceeded both internal as well as external expectations in terms of quality, story and gameplay,» Enad Global 7 CEO Ji Ham said. «Despite the phenomenal work by the team at Piranha, the game failed to reach new audiences and expand its core audience as anticipated and therefore has not met the necessary sales targets, which has forced us to undertake necessary actions.» We liked Clans quite a bit when it dropped last year, saying it «delivers a strong story of struggling young warriors alongside the best-ever version of its iconic, lumbering mech combat» in our 82% review.
Player numbers on Steam weren't great, though, reaching an all-time peak concurrent player count of just 5,600, according to SteamDB—not much more than the peak put up by the 10-year-old Mechwarrior Online.
The layoffs mean Piranha will be able to continue operating with «sound profitability» while still producing new content for Mechwarrior 5: Clans, Enad Global 7 said, and isn't sound profitability and producing new content what made us fall in love with games in the first place?
For similar reasons, but without mention of any specific failure, Toadman will be closed after «several initiatives to turn the subsidiary profitable» apparently failed to accomplish their goal.
EG7 said the shutdown «stems directly from the continued industry challenges and the studio's inability to secure new Work-for-Hire (WFH) contracts at a necessary pace,» and will see 69 employees and subcontractors put out of work, although 42 will continue to work on the studio's currently contracted projects until they're completed.