Dreadnought developer lays off third of workforce days after game's release

The developer of recently-released multiplayer spaceship shooter Dreadnought has laid off a third of its staff just days after the game's release.

The precarious situation led the team to try and finish the game as quickly as possible, with one developer telling Game Informer it felt "simultaneously both hurried and spiritless". Dreadnought launched to mixed reviews on Steam earlier this week, and shortly after, 45 staff were offered the choice to take either unemployment or unpaid leave, in the hope that they could return if Dreadnought began to make more money.

Six Foot chief operating officer Christian Svensson later confirmed that "about a third" of its developers had been laid off, and that the studio's staffing team was helping departing employees find new jobs. His statement, made on Thursday, reads:

"In August, Six Foot informed its staff of the upcoming potential for major changes to our company structure, including continued development of Dreadnought as a live product.

"Everyone on the games team was given the option to stay on and continue working or begin searching for other opportunities with the full support of the company and the aid of our staffing team, while still receiving pay in the interim. New updates on the company’s status were delivered to the full team every two weeks from there.

"Today we regrettably confirm a reduction of about a third of our game dev workforce. We’re continuing to make available the full resources of our company to try to help those affected and their families land on their feet as quickly as possible.

"We remain committed to Dreadnought's ongoing development, growth, and the pursuit of new projects. We are also dedicated to remaining active in helping our affected family to transition as smoothly as possible."

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.