People Can Fly, the Polish studio best-known for Outriders and Gears of War Judgment, has confirmed even more jobs are at risk as it cancels two projects: Project Gemini and Project Bifrost.
“Today we made a very difficult decision to suspend the development of project Gemini and project Bifrost — the relevant current reports have been released to the market,” CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski wrote in a statement.
“The suspension of the Gemini project is a consequence of the fact that the Publisher has not presented us with a draft of the subsequent content rider to the Publishing Agreement covering the terms and conditions of further milestone on project Gemini and the lack of communication from the Publisher as to its willingness to continue or terminate the Gemini project.
“Project Bifrost was suspended due to the above and the analysis of the Group’s cash flow, which showed a lack of prospects for securing organisational resources and funds necessary to continue the production and release of this project.”
The CEO concluded: “As a result, we have to significantly regroup as a studio and scale down our teams, which hurts the most. We wish to express our deepest regret and sadness over how these events have unfolded and our sincere gratitude for everyone’s contribution up to this point.”
While the statement from Wojciechowski does not specific what publishing companies led to the decision to halt development, the Outriders developer’s own website confirms Gemini was partnered with Square Enix, and Bifrost was a self-published project. Square Enix is yet to comment.
The company similarly “scaled down” development on the latter when it laid off 120 workers at the end of last year. It is also working with Krafton and Sony on Project Echo and Delta, respectively, and Microsoft on Gears of War: E-Day.
People Can Fly’s most recent release is Bullestorm VR, an updated version of the classic shooter for Meta Quest and PSVR 2.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
