Unfortunately, Spiders had to resort to layoffs because they could not retain their existing development staff.

Spiders, the developer of GreedFall, laid off most of their animation team. Lead animator Erwan Perrin wrote on LinkedIn: “Hey! We’ve recently been informed that, like most of the industry, Spiders Games will proceed with a layoff plan, and sadly, most of the animation and rigging team will be affected. If you’re looking for a talented and passionate Paris-based animator or rigging artist, hit me up.”

Sadly, this is just the latest example of a seemingly endless wave of layoffs, affecting everyone from the biggest companies to mid-sized teams. A couple of examples: Warner Bros. closed Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego. Electronic Arts laid off 300–400 employees, including those at Respawn and the essentially neutered Codemasters. Microsoft closed The Initiative and canceled a new MMO in development at ZeniMax Online Studios. Mid-sized examples include Spiders and Supermassive Games. Supermassive Games was recently in the news when one of its upcoming games was postponed until 2026.

GreedFall 2: The Dying World has not performed well since its Early Access release. The game’s record on Steam was 375 concurrent players, and nowadays, it’s lucky to have 10 players pick up a Spiders game. User reviews are also very negative — the overall rating is 55%, but the average rating of recent reviews is even lower, at 40%. A main issue for much of the community is the combat system, which changed from real-time action in the first GreedFall to something reminiscent of Dragon Age: Origins or World of Warcraft. Spiders has since improved the combat experience with better animations and sounds, but the core combat system remains dated.

It’s a shame because the original Greedfall was a fun action RPG that deserved a proper sequel.

Source: WCCFTech, LinkedIn