Surgent Studios has not escaped the recent agonizing situation that has plagued the gaming industry for over a year.

Originally, it was not known how many people Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studios had put out of work. Their game had only been released three months earlier, and along with the press, gamers had a pretty good opinion of it. At first, neither the studio nor its founder Abubakar Salim commented publicly on the layoffs, but several former Surgent developers broke the news on social media.

Among them was Peter Brisbourne, who had previously worked as a track designer at Surgent Studios. He wrote on LinkedIn that the “Pete works at Surgent” chapter will end at the end of the month. Philip Smy, who worked as a producer at the studio, simply wrote that he was a victim of the Wild West situation in the game industry. Another producer posted on Bluesky that he was very likely to get bad news, and then the other day simply said, “Well, I’ve officially been laid off, as expected. Sh_t sucks…”.

pic.twitter.com/gulWFDsFZS

— Surgent Studios | ZAU OUT NOW (@surgentstudios) July 2, 2024

Thank you so much to those who have checked in. This hurts deeply. This isn’t the news I wanted to share today.

I am so proud of what the team have acheieved over the course of these 4 years. When things got tough, every one of them stood so strong, it was inspiring.

So to be… https://t.co/Q0C7H5udvv

— Abubakar Salim (@Abzybabzy) July 2, 2024

Then yesterday, Surgent Studios officially confirmed on Twitter with a public announcement that they had joined the growing camp of studios facing layoffs this year. Just over a dozen people lost their jobs. “Unfortunately, Surgent Studios has joined the growing number of game studios affected by layoffs this year, with just over a dozen people affected. It’s a difficult time in the games industry, but we remain incredibly proud of our entire team’s work on Tales of Kenzera: Zau and the praise it has received from critics and players alike. Our focus now is on supporting those affected, continuing our work on Zau, and looking to the future with our next creative projects,” the statement said.

Salim said it has been a painful process, but he is proud of what the studio has accomplished over the past four years.

Source: Gamesindustry, LinkedIn,