Undead Labs announces “significant” lay-offs following its independence from Xbox

As part of Microsoft's first round of Xbox restructurings earlier this year, the console maker parted ways with a number of studios, including Undead Labs of State of Decay fame. Fortunately, the studio managed to regain its independence while staying open and active – confirming that “the team is working hard” on State of Decay 3. While this still remains the case, the ‘team’ in question is sadly having to “say goodbye to a significant number of our colleagues.”

While much of the news cycle right now revolves around Microsoft’s latest mass lay-offs / restructurings – in which Halo is now moving to Activision; Playground Games and Turn10 are merging; and 250+ developers have been let go – ex-Xbox studio Undead Labs has made its own unfortunate announcement.

Taking to LinkedIn, the newly-independent studio revealed that their previous split from Microsoft has led to a number of necessary cuts, writing: “Today, we announced that Undead Labs is becoming an independent, employee-owned studio. Our focus going forward is simple: making the best games we can and earning the continued support of the people who choose to spend their time with us.”

The statement continues, “Unfortunately, today we are also saying goodbye to a significant number of our colleagues. It's difficult to reach this moment knowing that not everyone who helped get us here gets to make the rest of the journey with us.”

Acknowledging the current state of the games industry, the studio added: “There have been far too many announcements like this across the industry, and we hate adding to that list. These are people we'd hire again in a heartbeat, and we hope the industry takes notice. To everyone leaving: thank you. We're proud of what we built together and grateful for everything you gave this studio, this game, and this community.”

This mirrors a similar statement for earlier this Summer, in which Double Fine Productions had to part ways with two-dozen of their own developers following the studio’s independence from Xbox – claiming it to be necessary for “the survival of our studio.”

Of course, both Double Fine Productions and Undead Labs are better off alive than being shuttered entirely. Still, it is sad to see Microsoft’s wide-sweeping decisions continuing to have negative impacts even for those who were fortunate to survive the “Reset”.

KitGuru says: Are you disappointed by this latest announcement? Is Undead Labs better off as an independent studio? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Become a Patron!