The video game industry continues to be rocked by instability and chaos: Evening Star, creator of 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway, announced that “turmoil” in the industry has forced the company to lay off six employees.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this post, but Evening Star has found itself in the same turbulence that has affected many of our peers in the gaming industry over the past year and a half,” wrote CEO and executive producer Dave Padilla LinkedIn.
“Despite our efforts to secure another project that will allow us to keep the team together, we have found ourselves in the unfortunate situation where we must lay off some of the people who have worked with us over the past few years on Penny’s Big Breakaway.”
“This is not a choice we wanted to make as they are all highly talented and valued individuals,” CTO and gaming director Hunter Bridges wrote in the post, saying the cuts were forced by “the volatile market conditions in the games industry and the operational realities of our business.”
It’s not a choice we wanted to make, because they are all very talented and valued individuals. But for now, we want to do everything we can to lend a hand them get back on their feet.September 13, 2024
Evening Star was founded in 2018 by veterans of the Sonic Mania development team, and that legacy was evident in Penny’s Big Breakaway. But it was more than just a similar 3D platformer: “Instead, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a deeply engaging, replayable experiment that draws equal parts inspiration from modern Sonic, 3D Mario, and more than a little bit from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” we wrote in our 80% review, adding that the studio’s debut game is “proof that Evening Star is more than just the Sonic Mania team.”
While reviews were generally positive, Penny’s Big Breakaway wasn’t — at least not at first. Couple—a breakout success. Despite a “very positive” user rating, the maximum number of players playing simultaneously was just 563. That’s not all, as Penny’s Big Breakaway is also available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch, but that’s not exactly the mark of a substantial hit, even for a single-player game.
Six employees is not a huge number, but it is a significant part of the Evening Star team. Studio LinkedIn the website indicates that it employs between 11 and 50 employees, while company website lists 19 employees, including six who have been laid off, although the website says the people listed on it are simply “some members of our team.”
The Evening Star layoffs are the latest in a nearly two-year bloodbath of cuts that have rocked the gaming industry: over 16,000 developers have lost their jobs by early 2024, and the situation hasn’t improved in the past six months. This week alone, there have been layoffs at Microsoft, Midnight Society, and Lost Boys Interactive; last week, on September 4, Until Dawn remake developer Ballistic Moon announced that it had made “the difficult decision to significantly reduce our team to secure the future of our studio,” just a month before the game’s highly anticipated PC launch.
