Humble Games confirmed a 'restructuring of operations' with reports of all staff gone

Tough times for indies, as Humble Games have confirmed they've done a "restructuring" of the publisher with previous staff saying everyone has been let go. This does not affect Humble Bundle / Humble Store though, as they were separate.

Reports coming in from yesterday with various ex-staffers posting on LinkedIn, like Emilee Kieffer, who was a Senior QA at Humble Games in a post that mentioned "Today is mine and my entire team's last day at Humble Games" and they also posted on X (Twitter) that the "entirety of Humble Games was laid off this morning". Another is Nicola Kwan who was a BizDev at Humble Games, posted on LinkedIn as well noting that "At 9AM this morning, all 36 employees of Humble Games were told that we were being let go and that the company is shutting down.".

Eventually, Humble Games posted a statement on X (Twitter) that reads:

In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.

We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team's contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.

Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated.

The website Aftermath managed to obtain a recording of a meeting where everyone was let go, and they were told that a third-party named The Powell Group will be finishing up any remaining projects.

Chris Radley, former Creative Lead at Humble Games (but left in 2022) didn't hold back on their LinkedIn post mentioning no staff are left:

I want it to be made abundantly clear, this is NOT a restructuring of operations. This is a total shutdown of #HumbleGames. 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.

It's worth noting Humble Games (and Humble Bundle) are owned by IGN's parent company, Ziff Davis, who also recently acquired Gamer Network including RPS, Eurogamer, VG247 and more and then fired a bunch of staff too.