Mediatonic, the once-independent developer behind platformer battle royale Fall Guys, has seemingly been hit especially hard by the massive layoffs at Epic Games today - to the point that one director at the studio has shared a photo of the studio logo in a depressing anagram: "decimation."
Since news broke earlier today that Epic was set to lay off 830 people, numerous Mediatonic employees have confirmed on social media that they're among those affected. Those include artists, programmers, level designers, IT support staff, and more, and many are already beginning to publicly seek new work.
Some observers have come to believe that Mediatonic is closing entirely, but that's not the case. "While it's true that Epic Games-owned Mediatonic (Fall Guys) was hit very hard by today's mass layoffs, reports/rumors that the entire studio was shuttered are not true," Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who initially broke word of the layoffs, says on Twitter.
Still, as shown in a photo from Murder by Numbers director Ed Fear, the layoffs have been severe enough to inspire someone at the studio to rearrange the Mediatonic logo to instead say "decimation."
The Mediatonic logo right now: pic.twitter.com/LHqbc62LL3September 28, 2023
Fear is also retweeting other Mediatonic employees affected by the layoffs, so if you're in a hiring position, give his feed a scan.
Mediatonic is an English studio founded way back in 2005. For much of its history, it developed web and mobile games for a variety of publishers, but the studio gained a bit of meme-worthy prominence with its remake of the Japanese pigeon dating sim Hatoful Boyfriend in 2014. The studio wouldn't truly break out until 2020, however, when it released the well-regarded Phoenix Wright-meets-Picross game, Murder by Numbers, and its biggest hit, Fall Guys.
Fall Guys found immediate success, with its approachable hybrid of platforming action and battle royale structure bolstered by an early giveaway as part of PS Plus. In the wake of the game's success, Mediatonic was acquired by Epic in 2021, and the game was relaunched as a free-to-play title in 2022. But over the years, Fall Guys has struggled to recapture its early success.
Today seems to be going from bad to worse for the games industry. Earlier today, we got news of the sudden cancellation of Creative Assembly's Hyenas by Sega, which was followed by word of layoffs from Epic. Now, sporadic reports of layoffs at Ubisoft and Blizzard are starting to circulate on social media. Our hearts go out to those affected by the latest round of corporate capriciousness.
Embracer Group has been another major purveyor of layoffs this year, including numerous casualties at the Tomb Raider studio.
