GreedFall II and Steelrising developer Spiders has apparently become the latest studio to be swept up in the ongoing wave of industry layoffs.
According to a LinkedIn post by lead animator Erwan Perrin (spotted by ResetEra user Maxime), Spiders will soon “proceed [with] a layoff plan” which will affect “most of the animation and rig team” at the studio. That’s the team that creates character animations and frameworks.
It’s not clear exactly how many employees will be hit by the layoffs, but it’s not a great sign for Spiders if “most” of an entire team at the studio is being let go.
If you’re not familiar with Spiders, it’s a French studio responsible for developing games like the aforementioned GreedFall II and Steelrising, as well as The Technomancer, Bound by Flame, and other Eurojank-style RPG-adjacent titles.
In many ways, the studio is similar to Gothic and Elex developer Piranha Bytes, which should probably come as more cause for alarm; that studio, which was based in Germany, was shut down in 2024 by parent company THQ Nordic.
Given that GreedFall II is currently in Early Access, it’s not entirely clear what these Spiders layoffs mean for the future of the game. According to SteamDB, however, GreedFall II has a 24-hour peak player count of just 13, so things aren’t looking great for the studio.
These layoffs at Spiders are part of a wider industry pattern that has seen multiple studios lay off employees, cancel projects, or shut down entirely, and the phenomenon isn’t just limited to smaller studios either.
Earlier this month, for instance, Microsoft laid off around 9,000 of its employees (yes, you read that number right), and as part of that employee cull, Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark were canceled, with the latter closing its doors for good as well.
We’ll have to wait and see what these layoffs might mean for Spiders, but I’m concerned about the studio’s future. Stay tuned for more.
