Outriders developer People Can Fly confirms staff layoffs, saying it’s ‘an unfortunate situation’

Polish developer People Can Fly, which is arguably best known for making the third-person co-op shooter Outriders and first-person-shooter Bulletstorm, has confirmed that it’s laid off a number of its staff. A spokesperson described the situation as “unfortunate.”

In a statement sent to TechRadar Gaming, a People Can Fly spokesperson said: “At this time we can confirm layoffs have occurred and we have nothing to add. It’s an unfortunate situation and we are doing our best to adequately support these laid off employees.”

According to the developer’s website, it has an international team of over 650 people, with 400 working on eight games across eight locations in North America and Europe. However, in the latest news, neither the number of employees affected, nor the specific areas of the company impacted by the redundancies were confirmed. It’s also not clear if any of the projects the developer is working on will be affected. We will update this story if further details are revealed. 

Sadly, 2024 has already been rife with layoffs across the games industry. Today (January 25), it was revealed that Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 members of staff from across the Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax teams. 

In a memo sent to staff, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, said the decision to lay off staff had been “painful.” He continued, speaking about those affected: “We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion, and dedication they have brought to our games, our players, and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws.”

Furthermore, it was confirmed that the unnamed survival game which was announced to be in the works at Blizzard Entertainment in 2022 has been canceled. Head of Xbox studios Matt Booty added that some of the people working on it will be moved to “one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.” 

If you’re looking for some new games to play, you can find some excellent choices on our lists of the best FPS games, as well as the best co-op games.