League of Geeks, an Australian game studio known for its releases Armello and Jumplight Odyssey, announced in February it had to halt operations due to financial difficulties. The announcement followed on the heels of the uncomfortable economic conditions in the gaming industry.
In December, League of Geeks had to lay off half its workforce, affecting 31 staff members, and halted the development of its early access space-arc simulator, Jumplight Odyssey, indefinitely. Due to the gaming industry’s challenging economic situation and lackluster financial performance of recent releases, the studio’s management decided to put the company in a state of ‘hibernation’ and take a prolonged hiatus.
This break will extend for an ‘unforeseeable future.’ The majority of the team has already split on their own projects, with a small group opting to take a break for a few months. The studio remains uncertain about when or if at all will League of Geeks return to operation.
During the company’s hibernation, League of Geeks games will remain on sale, and they will continue to get support:
- Solium Infernum, despite high ratings, did not meet sales expectations — while there are no funds for active adaptation or DLC, the game will receive some bug fixes and new content;
- no investments were found for the continuous development of Jumplight Odyssey, thereby, its development remains paused — while it is expected to leave early access in the coming year, it won’t be the 1.0 version initially envisioned by the studio;
- the annual rotation of seasonal content in Armello will continue, unaffected by League of Geeks’ situation.
“Making video games is hard (and painfully hard in recent years), but the smart and lovely people (both within and outside LoG) with whom we’ve had the pleasure of working have filled each day of this crazy business with meaning,” shared the developers.
In the first five months of 2024, game companies laid off over 10.8k people — more than the total layoffs in 2023. Publishing leaders, development studios, and investment companies have already labeled 2024 as the ‘year of closures’.
