Versus Evil, the publisher behind UnMetal, The Hand of Merlin, and other indie games, has officially shut down as of today. The entire team was laid off right in the middle of the holiday season, following ten years of work.
The publisher did not offer an exact reason behind the move. However, Versus Evil did release an official statement via Twitter, thanking the community.
Parent company tinyBuild, best known for the Hello Neighbor franchise and smaller games like SpeedRunners, had only recently acquired Versus Evil a couple of years ago.
TinyBuild recently suffered its own layoffs earlier this month due to falling revenue. It reportedly let go around 10%-30% of its employees.
A couple of upcoming Versus Evil games were also recently delayed. Now, the fate of those titles is deeply uncertain. TinyBuild could potentially pick them up again later on, but that seems unlikely.
This news comes soon after a variety of other layoffs in the industry. Studios as large as Bungie were devastated by “soul-crushing” layoffs, and apparently Bungie hopes to avoid pressure from Sony.
The layoffs particularly include Embracer Group, as 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks both faced layoffs just weeks ago.
Embracer Group wished happy holidays on Twitter today, failing to read the room. Naturally, this was poorly met from fans of the affected studios.
Similarly, tinyBuild simply posted about Winter Quest Giveaways around the same time that Versus Evil announced it has shut down.
Hopefully, tinyBuild will soon issue something official that addresses the layoffs.
The timing of all these holiday season layoffs has been harrowing. Some Versus Evil employees have taken to Twitter in order to ask around for new positions and help through this difficult time.
For more about the latest gaming industry updates, you can read about Sony reportedly planning even more layoffs at various PlayStation studios, including Insomniac.
