Humble Games, publisher of Ukrainian Moonscars, has laid off its entire staff - but says it's "just restructuring"

However, it seems that this restructuring does not involve retaining any of the existing employees.

News of mass layoffs first emerged from Humble Games employees. One of them reported on LinkedIn that at 9 AM, 36 employees of the publisher learned about their termination and the company's closure. Another employee confirmed that all workers at Humble Games had lost their jobs.

In an official statement from the publisher, shared on the social network X, it was described as a "restructure" rather than a closure. The company assures that it will continue to support the developers with whom it has publishing agreements.

In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability…

— Humble Games — Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus OUT NOW (@PlayHumbleGames) July 23, 2024

Chris Radley, a former Humble Games employee who left the company in 2022, stated that the entire publisher staff had been replaced by a "third-party consulting firm." According to Aftermath, this firm turned out to be The Powell Group, which took over after the unsuccessful attempt by Humble Games' owner, Ziff Davis, to sell the publisher.

Humble Games is known for publishing titles such as Void Bastards, Forager, Signalis, and the Ukrainian game Moonscars. The publisher also has agreements for future projects, including the survival game Lost Skies and the co-op heist game Monaco 2.

It is worth noting that Humble Games is associated with Humble Bundle — a store that popularized the "pay what you want" game bundle sales model. However, they are separate entities, and today's news will not affect the operations of Humble Bundle.

Both Humble Bundle and Humble Games are owned by the media company Ziff Davis, which also owns gaming sites such as IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, and others.

The situation with Humble Games reflects a broader trend in the gaming industry. The past year has been challenging for industry workers, and this year the situation has only worsened — thousands of employees were laid off from various companies just in January.

Source: PCgamer