It’s been a rough week in the video game industry with Microsoft’s announcement another round of layoffs at its Xbox division and staff resigning at Annapurna Interactive. Now, to sadly add to this, Penny’s Big Breakaway developer Evening Star has announced that it has had to lay off some of its team.
In a statement via social media, Evening Star CTO Hunter Bridges revealed that the small developer has parted ways with six team members due to “volatile market conditions” and the “operational realities” of its business. Here is the full message:
“Unfortunately, due to the volatile market conditions in the games industry and the operational realities of our business, Evening Star has to part ways with 6 team members from our Penny’s Big Breakaway development team. This is not a choice we wanted to make, as they are all very talented and respected individuals .”
Evening Star co-founder Christian Whitehead shared his own response, noting how the decision was an “inevitable reality” for the team:
“I have some sad but important news to share. We didn’t want to reduce the size of our team, but it is now an unavoidable reality for us. Those who are leaving are such lovely, well-rounded and capable teammates so anyone hiring please get in touch”
Penny’s Big Breakway debuted on Switch and a number of other platforms earlier this year in February. It was the first project of Evening Star (the same talent who worked on Sonic Mania) and was well received by fans and critics.
