Warframe developer prepares to lay off staff as it cuts publishing arm
Digital Extremes, the developer behind multiplayer sci-fi shooter Warframe, has announced a «number of» layoffs at the studio. This comes as a result of plans to close Digital Extremes' publishing division.
This closure also means that Digital Extremes will no longer be publishing free-to-play online action RPG Wayfinder. Instead, full control of the game will revert to its developer, Texas-based studio Airship Syndicate.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Digital Extremes stated: «We have made the difficult decision to cease operations of our external projects division [...] We have had to say goodbye to a number of hardworking and highly valuable team members as a result.»
At this stage, we don't yet know how many people will be affected by these layoffs. However, we do know that these redundancies at Digital Extremes follow a troubling trend of layoffs across the industry in recent months.
Fortnitedeveloper Epic Games laid off over 800 staff back in September — amounting to roughly 16% of the studio's workforce. Bungie, the studio behind Destiny 2, announced layoffs of its own, as has Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red, the folks behind The Witcher 3 and sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077. In response to layoffs at CD Projekt Red, employees unionized in an effort to prevent future redundancies.
Despite being new to publishing, Digital Extremes is a long-running developer with over three decades of industry experience. Responsible for the Unreal series of classic first-person shooter titles, the studio would go on to find even greater success with Warframe. A competitor to Destiny 2, Warframe would carve out its own niche with its whip-fast combat and wide range of playable characters.
Wayfinder would not enjoy the same
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