Humble Games
Humble Games fired every employee of the publisher and “restructured” itself to 3rd party work
One of the most illustrious publishing houses of the Indie game scene has been completely gutted in a total restructure, and its future is now a mystery.
In a devastating year in terms of layoffs in the video game industry, not a week goes by without bad news. Now it’s the turn of Humble Games, Humble’s publishing label and one of the most prestigious of the independent scene. Thirty-six people, all personnel who were part of the company, were fired without prior notice, raising all kinds of questions about the future of the publisher. The first reports suggested that this meant the effective closure of the publisher, although Ziff Davies, owners of the company and editors of IGN among numerous other international games media sites, assure that it is a “restructuring.”
In a public message, company representatives explained themselves as follows::
- 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 and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.
- We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team’s contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.
- Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated
Contradictory information
For its part, affected professionals dispute the public message that is being offered by the company. In anonymous statements to Aftermath, an affected worker accuses Ziff Davies of lying: “Ziff is trying to spread the idea that it’s a restructuring to save face, but that’s a lie. No one from HG survived the layoffs, nor will they have anything to do with game launches moving forward.”
For his part, Chris Radley, creative leader of Humble Games, who left the company in 2022, offered on Linkedin his vision of what was happening in the company: “Operations have been handed off to a third party consultancy. NO staff are left. DO NOT believe this AI message written by the parent company of Humble Games, Ziff Davis, who are trying to mitigate pushback. This was ONCE AGAIN a failure of leadership across the board, and once again hard working talented staff are paying the cost for their poor decisions. Every ex-employee is being gaslit by this narrative and its so disrespectful.”
Humble Games had stood out with a powerful line of releases that had elevated the label to one of the most prestigious on the independent scene. Games like the extraordinary Signalis, or large independent phenomena such as Unpacking, Slay the Spire, A Hat in Time, and Temtem were helped to come to light by the work of Humble, in addition to numerous high-quality games such as Flynn: Son of Crimson, Unsighted, Ghost Song, and Prodeus. The production company also has numerous games in the pipeline for the future, such as the sequels to Monaco, Wizard of Legend, and Never Alone, as well as interesting proposals such as Breeze in the Clouds or On Your Tail. We will have to pay attention to the coming months to see what exactly Humble’s future is as a producer.
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