UPDATE (12:05 PM ET): Humble Games has denied using AI to write the statement put out by the company regarding the layoffs and restructuring.
In addition to that, a spokesperson for the company says that “Humble Games and Ziff Davis are not commenting further about the ongoing restructuring at this time.”
ORIGINAL: On Tuesday it was revealed that layoffs were happening at Humble Games, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment. Despite many believing it was a closure of the publishing studio, the company put out a statement saying that it was a “restructure” rather than a closure of Humble Games.
Now, nearly 24 hours later, the situation is only getting messier.
On Tuesday, former Humble Bundle creative lead Chris Radley posted on LinkedIn that what was happening was “NOT a restructuring of operations. This is a total shutdown of Humble Games.”
He continued: “Operations have been handed off to a third party consultancy. NO staff are left. DO NOT believe this AI message written by the parent company of Humble Games, Ziff Davis, who are trying to mitigate pushback. This was ONCE AGAIN a failure of leadership across the board, and once again hard working talented staff are paying the cost for their poor decisions. Every ex-employee is being gaslit by this narrative and its so disrespectful.”
What’s more is that Aftermath was sent a recording that confirmed that all current Humble Games projects would be handled by The Powell Group, a third-party company.
Steve Horowitz, president of technology and shopping at Ziff Davis, said that the company failed multiple times to sell Humble Games before deciding to shut it down. Horowitz said that attempts to sell the company didn’t produce “a viable offer or outcome”.
He then went on to say that the company has seen “an additional millions increase in development expenses” leading to a “very tough but necessary decision to restructure all of Humble Games”.
“As such, we’re gonna be using a third-party to help us manage the slate moving forward, as well as the back catalog,” Horowitz said. “As a result, all roles within Humble Games are gonna be impacted.”
Despite being called a “restructure”, there are no employees left at Humble Games. The company, for all intents and purposes, is no more aside from a name.
Insider Gaming has once again reached out to IGN Entertainment and their parent company Ziff Davis for more clarification. Specially, we have asked about the claims that the statement was written by AI and how the company will move forward with no employees.
Should a response be received, it will be added to this story.
IGN needs to be shut down. Ziff David honestly needs to be shut down they wasted money on acquisitions they’re basically the Chicken Soup of gaming.
So the only thing they actually argued against was the use of AI writing that text?