Dauntless Developer Is The Latest Studio To Suffer Significant Layoffs

The gaming industry has suffered a wave of layoffs in recent weeks, and Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs is the latest victim of the trend. Back in February, GamesBeat reported that the studio's management purchased Phoenix Labs from the Singaporean game company Garena, which originally acquired the studio back in 2020.

The studio didn't say how many employees were affected by the move, but Polygon estimates that it impacted around 30 people based on its LinkedIn profile. Phoenix Labs issued the following statement to Polygon:

“As part of the reorganization, we worked diligently to find new assignments for as many employees as possible While we succeeded in reassigning many people, there were cases where we had to part ways with some talented folks. In total, 9% of our total employees have been affected, including some out of Montreal and some working remotely in the United States. In addition to severance and benefits coverage extensions, we’ve offered assistance for job placement in an effort to ease transition for all affected employees.”

The company said back in mid-2022 that it has 10 projects in various stage of development, including the upcoming co-op farming game Fae Farm. In that same statement, Phoenix Labs said that Dauntless had reached at least 30 million players. Dauntless is a free-to-play RPG that is often compared to the Monster Hunter series. Similar layoffs have occurred at major gaming companies like Take-Two and Amazon.