Palia developer, Singularity 6 has suffered layoffs.

[Venirto]

Source: https://www.mmorpg.com/news/cozy-mmo-palia-developer-singularity-6-has-suffered-layoffs-2000131074

49 people were let go according to Twitter posts.

[kyleblane]

I find it interesting that there are quite a few positive reviews thinking this is a "20 person team" or even "a small dev team." Meanwhile they're laying off nearly 50 employees. The more you know about S6, the less likely you are to support them or their game. I want them to succeed. I want Palia to be the game they originally set out to make. They (or some higher-up) just keep getting in the way of themselves.

[MadDawg2552]

It's because the gaming industry is too focused on "increasing profits" for the shareholders instead of making games. Trying to continue to grow your company for eternity is unsustainable, especially when you fire all your best employees.

[Kayn]

Guess the steam launch didn't go so well. If only they had dedicated members of their community giving them feedback for the last six months that could have seen this coming...

[Falcos01]

not surprised their model is very bad and one of their major problem is there no way to earn outfit unless you spend 80 bucks and its like a mobile games with timer everywhere.

[deepgreenbear]

I'm really sorry to hear this. I just discovers the game and am really enjoying it. It's the kind of game I want to support but the price points for the in game currency are so high I probably never will. I think it would be great if they had a 5 00 to 10.00 USD a month where you get one "old" outfit so you can give a drip of support to the Dev's if your not a whale. I'm always happy to pay for something I use but maybe it's just the boomer in me, I can't bring myself to buy things from in game shops... I played Wow for 10 years at 12.00 a month but I never once bought something from the in game store. But I like this game enough that I want to support it and see it succeed so a low cost game pass type deal is something I would be fully on board with.

[Exploding_Acorn]

Just about every major group in the last year has had layoffs. Even groups with major established titles.

The games industry as a whole seems to be having problems. This always sucks when people lose their jobs, but seems to be following the trend.

[Mongoose]

I guess we should all say goodbye to Palia since S6 is trying to kill it instead of making it better

[Freebird]

Originally posted by Venirto:

Source: https://www.mmorpg.com/news/cozy-mmo-palia-developer-singularity-6-has-suffered-layoffs-2000131074

49 people were let go according to Twitter posts.

I mean, they were developing an entire game.

The game is now developed. The workload has lessened, doesn't mean we won't still see DLC.

[ZeroGiven]

Originally posted by Freebird:

Originally posted by Venirto:

Source: https://www.mmorpg.com/news/cozy-mmo-palia-developer-singularity-6-has-suffered-layoffs-2000131074

49 people were let go according to Twitter posts.

I mean, they were developing an entire game.

The game is now developed. The workload has lessened, doesn't mean we won't still see DLC.

Except it is still in Beta, right? Release firings are expected. Still in Beta (with very little content and a whole lot of bugs) layoffs aren't.

[kyleblane]

Originally posted by Freebird:

I mean, they were developing an entire game.

The ARE developing an entire game. They don't make much effort to tell you this, but it's in beta.

[Freebird]

Originally posted by kyleblane:

Originally posted by Freebird:

I mean, they were developing an entire game.

The ARE developing an entire game. They don't make much effort to tell you this, but it's in beta.

Seems pretty "no evidence of an early access banner anywhere" to me.

[Tode[BTC]]

Originally posted by Exploding_Acorn:

Just about every major group in the last year has had layoffs. Even groups with major established titles.

The games industry as a whole seems to be having problems. This always sucks when people lose their jobs, but seems to be following the trend.

The problem it is having is called greed.

[MadDawg2552]

Originally posted by TodeBTC:

The problem it is having is called greed.

[tsunderecracker]

Originally posted by TodeBTC:

The problem it is having is called greed.

The problem is burning through seed money and having no income other than ludicrously overpriced cosmetics.

I don't know how many $16 Hot Dog costumes you'd have to sell per day to afford the salary of 49 game developers but I'm guessing they found out.

[CursedXistence]

The game is in the BETA phase, it's common to reduce workforce once a game reaches that stage and if there isn't another game in the pipeline ready to go, layoffs happen.

As far as the monetization model, they're obviously targeting "whales" who will snatch up every bit of store merch. they can no matter the cost. It is high risk / high reward, but completely unsustainable unless they constantly push out a lot of new store items. They'll either ride or die with that business model or they'll end up bringing the prices way down except for ultra prem. things like more pets, etc.