Scavengers Studio, the Montreal-based developer behind Season and Darwin Project, is laying off more than half of its staff due to lackluster sales of its latest game.
Season, the indie darling and one of PlayStation’s best exclusives in recent years, appears to have sold just under 60,000 copies, according to statistics. French journalist Gauthier Andrés. Despite the plethora of trailers and rave reviews for Season, the game appears to be a hit with a small crowd.
In an update provided to Gamesindustry.biz, the developer shared an internal announcement made by CEO Amélie Lamarche at the studio last week. It noted: “While Season was well received, it fell short of our commercial expectations.” The statement later confirmed Andres’ initial report: “Despite our efforts to increase sales through content updates and discounts, the game Only 60,000 copies were sold in its first five months, which was far below the number the studio needed to survive.”
“Given the current global economic environment and Season’s financial performance, we had no choice but to make the difficult decision to downsize the studio to a smaller, sustainable game development team. Unfortunately, this Meaning we’re parting ways with everyone except about 16 game developers. Members of the Scavenger Studios team.”
Obviously, this sucks. Season has become one of the most visually arresting games since its unveiling at The Game Awards 2020. Since then, it’s continued to release more trailers that showcase the light-hearted vibe and flamboyant style. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be enough to grab the attention of a wider audience.
It’s been a brutal year for layoffs in the tech and gaming industries. This affects not only independent studios like Scavengers, but some of the biggest names in the gaming industry, including Microsoft and Riot Games. Even EA has been hit by layoffs and restructuring due to the current economic turmoil.
With the current economy still headed downwards, we may see more studios facing similar tough choices in the future. Thankfully, Montreal is a popular city for game development, so hopefully those laid off from Scavenger Corp will get back on their feet.
