Punctuating ye⛄ars of bad news, Dauntless and Fae F😼arm developer Phoenix Labs is laying off "the majority of the studio" just two years after it was snapped up by blockchain company .
The studio's latest🅷 wave of layoffs was revealed on . "We have made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations," the post reads.
In a nod to players, Phoenix Labs adds: "We will share more details in the coming weeks about🎃 what this means for Dauntless and Fae Farm. For now, our focus is on supporting those affected through this transition."
Fae Farm is a great little farm sim RPG that works just fine on its own, but the future of Dauntless looks particularly dire. The multiplayer Monster Hunter-like action RPG was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:significantly overhauled in 𝓰December alongside its Steam release, and the changes were universally panned as severe downgrades in depth and monetization. At the time of writing, Dauntless has 16% positive user reviews o▨n Steam, and its average daily player count has cratered.
The "blatantly not player-focused" changes to Dauntless earned the ire of ex-Phoenix Labs as🏅sociate producer Jesse Leigh 💯Gagnon, who was present for the studio's early daꦫys and who agreed that the December update𒅌 "gutted the core gameplay and crafting."
Following today's layoff news, ex-Phoenix Labs artist Nicholas Kole, who was among the 140+ devs laid off last year after Forte canceled a three-year project that was weeks away fr🌊om reveal, said on : "And [that] looks like the death blow. I am so mad at the overlords I cannot e༺ven find the wo🅺rds."
As reported, the Forte acquisition was handled bizarrely secretively, and the time since the deal has been marked by a series of cancellations, layoffs, and now poorly received updates. The new corporate owner has reportedly pushed its stable of developers to find ways to integrate blockchain technology – which has proven unpopul🧸ar, unsuccessful, and often unrealistic for countless games – into their projects. Phoenix Labs has never announced any blockcha🐠in pivots or projects, but Dauntless players feared that its new monetization scheme was a harbinger of things to come. At this point, it's unclear if anything will come from Phoenix Labs ever again.
Austin has ꦉbeen a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journal🌞ism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
