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Wayfinder developer Airship Syndicate has confirmed the layoffs of 12 workers, initially reported by Nicole Carpenter of Polygon, as a part of an effort to maintain the studio open and working. In an uncommon twist, Airship Syndicate stated firm president Ryan Stefanelli and CEO Joe Madureira are additionally taking pay cuts.
“I can affirm that at the moment we needed to half methods with 12 of our coworkers,” an Airship Syndicate rep stated in a press release supplied to PC Gamer. “This determination was made to make sure that Airship Syndicate can proceed to function and ship nice experiences. Along with decreasing employees, Ryan Stefanelli, President, and Joe Madureira, CEO, might be decreasing their pay whereas we work to safe our future plans.”
The rep added that there are presently 80 folks “working full-time on Wayfinder.”
How a lot of a reduce Stefanelli and Madureira will take wasn’t specified. It is a bit uncommon for studio executives to take pay cuts throughout occasions of bother—usually they simply skate whereas front-line builders are put out of labor—however not fully unprecedented: Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick took a major pay reduce in 2021 amidst the corporate’s office misconduct scandal, which notably included his large bonuses—a earlier pay reduce introduced earlier that 12 months left him with half his bonus payout intact.
Wayfinder seemed very promising after we checked out an early beta in 2023, however the launch a number of months later didn’t go nicely, primarily attributable to server troubles that triggered prolonged wait occasions for individuals who jumped into the early entry launch. The result’s a “blended” consumer ranking on Steam, the place simply 47% of consumer critiques are presently optimistic. Lower than three months after Wayfinder launched, writer Digital Extremes pulled the plug on its publishing division and handed “full management” of the sport again to Airship Syndicate.
Regardless of the cuts, the Airship Syndicate rep stated that “this isn’t the top for Wayfinder,” and that extra details about the sport’s future might be revealed quickly.
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