Over 100 individuals impacted
- by Ben Kerry
This week, the CEO of Polish company People Can Fly conveyed some unfortunate news regarding the Gears of War: Judgment and Outriders development team. Due to “external market pressures,” People Can Fly is “restructuring certain support teams”—resulting in the termination of a total of 120 employees.
CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski has issued an extensive statement on this matter, concluding with the reassurance that the studio “will not abandon our aspirations” despite the significant loss of team members. We will include the full People Can Fly statement below:
“Today, we made an extremely difficult decision to halt our self-publishing efforts by pausing Project Victoria, reducing our staff on Project Bifrost, and reorganizing several of our support teams at People Can Fly.
We are profoundly saddened by the reality that this situation means suspending or parting ways with over 120 talented individuals—colleagues we cherished having as part of our team.
This action was necessary as external market pressures continued to exceed our expectations. The video game industry is still changing, and we now need to adapt to the current climate. We are intensifying our focus on new hiring opportunities and concentrating on developing a single quality game.
We believe in our teams, video games, and their potential, and we remain wholly committed to pursuing that journey, but we need to align our plans with our financial capabilities.
We are immensely thankful for the contributions of every team member affected by this situation; their skills and dedication have significantly shaped our company and our games. These changes deeply impact all of us.
We recognize this is an extremely challenging period for our team members as we bid farewell to valued colleagues who have provided so much. We are focused on assisting those affected during this transition by providing them with resources and support to navigate this change, and we are equally committed to taking care of those who remain, who are coping with the challenges of losing peers and colleagues. Our priority is to approach this moment with empathy and to ensure our staff feels supported as we work together to build a stronger future.
In this challenging moment, our commitment to excellence and innovation remains as strong as ever. For everyone who loves what we create – we will not give up on our dreams.”
Sebastian Wojciechowski
CEO
In summer 2023, Xbox entered a partnership with People Can Fly to develop ‘Project Maver