"I am so mad at the overlords I cannot even find the words": Dauntless dev lays off "majority of the studio" 2 years after a blockchain company bought it out

Punctuating years of bad news, Dauntless and Fae Farm developer Phoenix Labs is laying off "the majority of the studio" just two years after it was snapped up by blockchain company Forte.

The studio's latest wave of layoffs was revealed on LinkedIn. "We have made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations," the post reads.

In a nod to players, Phoenix Labs adds: "We will share more details in the coming weeks about what this means for Dauntless and Fae Farm. For now, our focus is on supporting those affected through this transition."

Fae Farm is a great little farm sim RPG that works just fine on its own, but the future of Dauntless looks particularly dire. The multiplayer Monster Hunter-like action RPG was significantly overhauled in December alongside its Steam release, and the changes were universally panned as severe downgrades in depth and monetization. At the time of writing, Dauntless has 16% positive user reviews on Steam, and its average daily player count has cratered.

The "blatantly not player-focused" changes to Dauntless earned the ire of ex-Phoenix Labs associate producer Jesse Leigh Gagnon, who was present for the studio's early days and who agreed that the December update "gutted the core gameplay and crafting."

Following today's layoff news, ex-Phoenix Labs artist Nicholas Kole, who was among the 140+ devs laid off last year after Forte canceled a three-year project that was weeks away from reveal, said on Bluesky: "And [that] looks like the death blow. I am so mad at the overlords I cannot even find the words."

As Game Developer reported, the Forte acquisition was handled bizarrely secretively, and the time since the deal has been marked by a series of cancellations, layoffs, and now poorly received updates. The new corporate owner has reportedly pushed its stable of developers to find ways to integrate blockchain technology – which has proven unpopular, unsuccessful, and often unrealistic for countless games – into their projects. Phoenix Labs has never announced any blockchain pivots or projects, but Dauntless players feared that its new monetization scheme was a harbinger of things to come. At this point, it's unclear if anything will come from Phoenix Labs ever again.

"One in 10" game developers were laid off in the past year, GDC survey of 3,000+ devs finds: "We set impossible goals and then fire everyone if they prove to be impossible."