In an awkward twist of fate, Life is Strange: Double Exposure took home a major award at GDC 2025—but no one from Deck Nine was there to accept it. The reason? The entire development team had already been laid off. Even the former staff had no idea the game had been nominated.

The return of Max Caulfield in Life is Strange: Double Exposure was meant to be a heartfelt callback for longtime fans, evoking the emotional weight of the original. The series has always been praised for its powerful storytelling and morally charged choices—but this time, it failed to strike a chord with its audience. Still, despite its lukewarm reception, the game ended up receiving one of the industry’s most notable honors.

During the IGN livestream of the Game Developers Conference, Life is Strange: Double Exposure won the “Social Impact” award at GDC 2025, edging out other acclaimed titles like Astro Bot, Frostpunk 2, and Neva. According to PCGamer, this particular category celebrates “games that advance equality, justice, intersectionality, or sustainability, and aim to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”

Journalist Stephen Totilo noted the strange absence, saying, “Just about every winning title had a representative come up and claim their trophy—except for Life is Strange, which won the Social Impact award but had no one to collect it.” Former narrative designer Elizabeth Ballou later explained the situation on BlueSky, revealing: “We were all fired.”

No One Was There to Accept the Award

“Of course, there was no one to accept the GDCA award for Double Exposure—because we’d all been let go. A bunch of us were even attending GDC, but none of us knew the game had even been nominated, so no one was prepared for that.” wrote Ballou.

Deck Nine, the studio behind the game, has suffered two major waves of layoffs: one in February 2024 and another in December. The result? A near-total dismantling of the team. More recently, reports surfaced that Double Exposure had been a significant financial loss for publisher Square Enix, making a sequel increasingly unlikely. The Japanese company has since turned to fans, asking for feedback on what went wrong with the latest installment.

Source: 3djuegos