After being dropped by Microsoft, Double Fine lays off 23 employees

"These actions are not taken lightly," writes studio head Tim Schafer.

Three weeks after being released from Xbox Game Studios by Microsoft, now independent developer Double Fine has announced it has laid off 23 employees.

The layoffs were confirmed by Double Fine in a social media post attributed to studio head Tim Schafer.

“Today, Double Fine Productions let go of 23 members of our staff,” Schafer wrote. “As a small, tightly-knit team, these actions are not taken lightly. Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action. Our transition to become an independent company also means become a size that we can sustain.

“The people we are losing were all important,” Schafer continued. “They all made an impact on our games and culture, and they will be missed.”

Schafer added that the studio is “committed to supporting each affected person as best we can, and we thank them for their hard work and commitment to the creative spirit we cherish here at Double Fine.”

It’s believed that Double Fine had a total of around 90 employees before this announcement of layoffs.

On 7 July, Microsoft announced that both Double Fine and South of Midnight‘s Compulsion Games would become independent studios, alongside its intention to sell off Hellblade‘s Ninja Theory and State of Decay‘s Undead Labs. The company also announced an intention to rid itself of Redfall‘s Arkane Studios.

As part of this strategy, one termed a “reset” by Xbox head Asha Sharma, a total of 3,200 employees have, or will, lose their jobs.

“Our business today is not healthy,” Sharma wrote at the time. “We must reset Xbox.”

“After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27,” Sharma continued. “This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave Xbox to new management.”

In a post to social media, Double Fine management it was “thankful to everyone at Xbox for seven great years together, and for working with us to reach an outcome which preserves our history and culture, and remains ownership of our games to us.”

We’ll have more on the studio as it’s known.

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