Amidst the rumors and speculations surrounding the third title in development at Striking Distance Studios – the team behind survival horror The Callisto Protocol and action roguelike [REDACTED] – the company has conducted a major round of layoffs, affecting, as one impacted employee describes it, “most of the developers” at the studio.
Striking Distance Studios
Revealed by at least a couple dozen laid-off workers on LinkedIn, the layoffs took place late last week and affected employees across various roles and departments, including both newcomers and studio veterans with five or more years of tenure at Striking Distance.
According to one such post, made by the studio’s now-former Concept Art Director Jesse Lee, the layoffs impacted “most of the devs” at SDS, however, due to varying reports on the studio’s pre-layoff headcount, it’s difficult to determine the exact number of affected employees, with estimates ranging from 30 to over a hundred laid-off developers.
What’s even more disheartening is that the news about the terminations comes in the same month we’ve gotten word about Striking Distance’s next title. While it hasn’t been officially announced by the studio and remains in the “top secret” folder, small hints and details shared by the developers have revealed it to be a standalone multiplayer third-person action game powered by Unreal Engine 5.
Unfortunately, with the recent layoffs and the Careers section on SDS’ official website featuring no job openings, the fate of the rumored game seems grim, as it’s likely to join the list of games canceled in 2025 even before being officially announced.
At the moment of writing, both Striking Distance and its parent company Krafton remain tight-lipped regarding the job cuts and have not addressed or acknowledged them in official blogs or on social media. 80 Level has reached out to the affected developers to gather more information about the layoffs and the reasons behind them.
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