Humble Bundle’s video game publishing arm Humble Games has today confirmed a company-wide “restructure” that has seen up to 36 employees laid off in the latest round of devastating job losses in the gaming sector. The news first hit social media as workers at the IGN Entertainment-owned company took to various platforms to share that they had been let go amid turbulent times that resulted in what some claimed was a complete lay-off of all staff.
In response, Humble Games took to Twitter to formally announce the changes, stating “In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations.”
While the statement does not acknowledge the exact number of workers affected by the “restructure”, Humble Games has, for now, insisted that publishing operations will continue in some capacity. A spokesperson told GamesIndustry that the company will “not be shutting down” and that “upcoming releases are not affected”.
We would copy and paste more of Humble Games’ public statement for you here to bump word count but it’s a fairly barebones PR spin on a horrible situation and by this point, we’re just as tired of these buzzwords and soft phrasings as you likely are.
The news is a blow on several levels, from the personal cost and impact of these job losses to the continued weakening of the publishing sphere. Humble Games has specifically championed several fantastic independent titles over the past few years, as recently as last week with Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus and 2022’s immaculate Signalis.
The list of games to have emerged from the label is as long as my arm though and even if it weren’t stacked with hits, the unprecedented retraction of the industry remains dire.
Are you tired of never being allowed to have nice things? Be sure to let us know in the comments below and hey, on social media shout out your favourite title from Humble Games, may as well remind them what they’ve managed to fuck up.
One part pretentious academic and one part goofy dickhead, James is often found defending strange games and frowning at the popular ones, but he's happy to play just about everything in between. An unbridled love for FromSoftware's pantheon, a keen eye for vibes first experiences, and an insistence on the Oxford comma have marked his time in the industry.
