The entire development team for Luna Abyss, a well-received shooter that was released just a month ago, has been laid off. Hollie Emery, the CEO of Kwalee Labs, revealed the news in a LinkedIn post. Emery claimed that the decision to make the development team redundant was completely outside of their control.
The decision was made despite piles of critical praise for Luna Abyss (the game holds an 81 on Metacritic). Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to have made a commercial splash. Luna Abyss peaked at 317 concurrent players on Steam, suggesting it hasn’t found a big audience.
The development team was made up of nine people, all of whom are now seeking work. The team spent seven years working on the game, which entered development in 2019. IGN first previewed the game back in 2023 and expressed plenty of optimism for the overall vision that Kwalee Labs had for Luna Abyss. That optimism trickled into another preview of the game earlier this year, ahead of the game’s release, where we praised the game for its difficulty and slick gameplay.
Luna Abyss is still available for purchase if you wish to give it a try yourself. The game is available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC for $29.99.
The news comes at a very unfortunate time, as news of gaming layoffs continues to make the rounds this summer. Bungie is expected to undergo “significant” layoffs next month as Destiny 2 winds down support, and a number of Xbox studios are reportedly under threat of closure, including Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and Double Fine. It’s being reported that all three of these studios are negotiating with Microsoft to potentially go independent, although significant layoffs would still be likely in either case.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
