The Witcher Multiplayer Spin-Off Studio Hit With Layoffs Due to Game Reboot: Report
The Witcher multiplayer spin-off game — codenamed ‘Sirius' — underwent a major overhaul last week, thanks to a developmental restart that defined a ‘new framework.' In the process, developer The Molasses Flood has reportedly laid off 29 employees — 21 team members in the US and eight from Poland. The Boston-based studio, best known for the roguelike survival game The Flame in the Hood, was confirmed to be leading development on The Witcher multiplayer spin-off last year, with direct support from CD Projekt Red. At the time, a single-player campaign mode was mentioned as well, though now, it's unclear if it's still on the table.
The Molasses Flood was founded in 2014 by a group of veteran developers who worked on Halo and BioShock, after which, it was acquired by The Witcher maker in 2021. “Because the project changed, so has the composition of the team that's working on it–mainly on The Molasses Flood's side,” a CD Projekt Red spokesperson said in a statement to Kotaku. Back in March, the publisher filed an impairment charge on Sirius, which is naturally done as a means to write off assets because they serve negligible value to the company. But during a financial earnings call in April, the company confirmed that the project had not been cancelled and that it was simply being reevaluated.
“So this is a project which is, I would say, insourced. It's also new to us in terms of design and format. For those reasons, it's very different from the big productions we are known for,” Adam Kiciński, CEO, CD Projekt Red, said in the Q&A session. “To stay competitive, we have to keep looking for new ways to extend our franchises.”
The multiplayer-focused ‘Sirius' was announced in October last year, alongside plans for a new The
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