An unknown number of employees have been laid off at Warframe developer and Wayfinder publisher Digital Extremes today. According to Polgyon, at least 20 employees in total were let go. It appears Digital Extremes is closing their external projects division which publishes games like the recently Early Access release title Wayfinder. Instead, the company will shift its focus towards internal projects like Warframe and Soulframe.
We reached out to Digital Extremes who confirmed the information and provided the following statement
“We can confirm we have made the difficult decision to cease operations of our external projects division. We have had to say goodbye to a number of hardworking and highly valuable team members as a result.”
The representative also confirmed that Digital Extremes is looking to transfer Wayfinder in its entirety into the hands of the developer, Airship Syndicate.
““We’re working with Airship to transition full control of Wayfinder to them in coming months.”
Just a few weeks ago there was a leadership change at Digital Extremes as well, with Chief Creative Officer Steven Sinclair replacing Founder James Schmalz as CEO of the company.
Rough times in the video games industry
These kinds of articles are never easy to write, especially when the video game industry seems to be suffering layoffs several times a week. Just yesterday Embracer Group laid off staff at developer Free Radical, after doing the same just last month at Cryptic Studios and Zen Studios. Ubisoft Montreal also suffered layoffs earlier this week.
This list has grown so big it almost feels easier to name the companies that have not conducted layoffs compared to those that have. According to the website VideoGameLayoffs.com, over 6,500 employees from over 100 companies in the games industry have been laid off this year alone.
