Life is Strange: Double Exposure developer Deck Nine announces another wave of layoffs

Deck Nine Games, the developer of Life is Strange: Double Exposure, has announced its second wave of layoffs this year, citing "challenging times" in the industry.

The details:

• The studio announced the layoffs in a post to X on Friday. CEO Mark Lyons did not specify how many employees were affected by the cuts, but he said it was an "extremely difficult decision" that "reflects the challenging times many companies in our industry are currently facing."

• Deck Nine, which took over the Life is Strange series from Don't Nod, announced in February that it had laid off 20% of its workforce. Similar to the most recent round of cuts, the studio cited "worsening market conditions" as the reason for the decision. It also laid off approximately 30 employees in May 2023, the majority of whom were lead developers.

• According to IGN's detailed report released earlier this year, Deck Nine has struggled internally over the years with "toxicity, hate speech, crunch, and more," creating an unpleasant working environment. Former employees affected by the February layoffs also claimed that they were immediately locked out of all company accounts and received only two weeks of severance pay, regardless of how long they had worked for the developer.

More gaming news:

• Riot Games has announced "Project K," a new physical card game which will be released in China next year before becoming available globally at a later date.

• EA has added another 23 patents to its patent pledge, allowing all developers to incorporate EA-developed accessibility technologies into their games for free.