Via a statement posted on social media, Humble Games has confirmed layoffs amid “restructuring of operations” at the indie game publisher. Parent company Ziff Davis laid off the entire team of 36 staff members and has passed work on remaining projects over to a third-party company called The Powell Group.
Following the news, ex-Humble Games team members took to LinkedIn to explain the situation, and news site Aftermath has since obtained a recording of the company meeting where Ziff Davis’ technology and shopping division president Steve Horowitz shared the news. Humble Games is responsible for publishing a huge range of indie games for the Nintendo Switch, mobile, and other platforms, like Mineko’s Night Market, Slay the Spire, and Unpacking.
While Humble Games representatives have told Aftermath and GamesIndustry.Biz that this round of layoffs constitutes a “restructure,” Aftermath’s Nathan Grayson points out that, “Considering that all employees are being laid off and a third-party company is taking over their duties, what remains will be Humble Games in name only.” IGN purchased Humble Bundle, the charity-based game bundle site that spawned Humble Games, back in 2017 and has since acquired many Gamer Network sites, leading to the immediate closure of Dicebreaker and more layoffs in the games journalism industry.
Ex-Senior QA Analyst at Humble Games Emilee Kieffer said on LinkedIn, “The game industry is volatile, it’s been inundated by people who only want exponential growth at the expense of making great games with great teams,” alluding to a larger problem in the industry. Former Humble Games creative lead Chris Radley, who left the company in 2022, went one step further and claimed that the company’s official statement may be AI-generated.
He says, “This is a total shutdown of #HumbleGames. Operations have been handed off to a third-party consultancy. NO staff are left. DO NOT believe this AI message written by the parent company of Humble Games, Ziff Davis, who are trying to mitigate pushback. This was ONCE AGAIN a failure of leadership across the board, and once again hard-working talented staff are paying the cost for their poor decisions. Every ex-employee is being gaslit by this narrative and it’s so disrespectful.” This statement originally read “tailored message,” Radley has since edited the post to allude to AI, presumably following several Twitter users like Cromwelp running the post through an AI detector.
That’s everything we know about the recent Humble Games layoffs. If you want to support the team’s hard work, make sure you check out our Mineko’s Night Market review, our list of the best Switch card games for more like Slay the Spire, and our Temtem tier list to stay on top of PVP.