Humble Games is essentially no more as all 36 staff are laid off by owner Ziff Davis

Beloved indie game publisher Humble Games appears to be no more after its owner Ziff Davis, which also has Eurogamer, IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, and others in its portfolio, let go of all 36 of the company's staff and defended its move with the most egregious use of the term "restructuring."

The details:

• Early yesterday, Humble Games employees began taking to LinkedIn to inform their contemporaries that Humble was no more. Nicola Kwan, Business Development Manager, posted, "At 9 AM this morning, all 36 employees of Humble Games were told that we were being let go and that the company is shutting down." Chris Radley, former Creative Lead at the company, later affirmed, "I want it to be made abundantly clear, this is NOT a restructuring of operations. This is a total shutdown of #HumbleGames. Operations have been handed off to a third-party consultancy. NO staff are left."
• Chris' post was a direct response to someone from Ziff Davis posting a statement to X through the Humble account that began, "In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle."
• The three-paragraph statement was also criticized for being corporate speak, lacking empathy, and perhaps even being AI-generated—or at least AI-modified. Additionally, Aftermath later reported that the third-party consultancy taking over existing Humble projects was The Powell Group. What remains of Humble Games will therefore surely be Humble in name only, marking another depressing development for the video game industry in 2024.

Other recent "restructuring" news:

• Former developers at NetherRealm Studios, best known for Mortal Kombat, have revealed that the company has laid off an unconfirmed number of employees.
• Ubisoft has announced that it is laying off 33 developers at its Toronto studio just weeks after joining the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake project.

Other recent gaming news:

• Warner Bros. Games has acquired free-to-play platform fighter Multiversus developer Player First Games.
• Microsoft recently announced that Xbox Game Pass would be subject to another price increase as well as structural changes, prompting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to claim that this is "exactly the sort of consumer harm" it warned about.