Civilization 7 dev hit with layoffs during Silksong launch hype

Job cuts across and throughout the gaming industry continue to mount, with Firaxis Games — the development studio behind the popular strategy game franchises Sid Meier's Civilization and XCOM, as well as the tactical RPG Marvel's Midnight Suns — the latest to be hit by a wave of layoffs.

The news first came not from the developer or its publisher, 2K, directly, but rather from Firaxis writer Emma Kidwell on LinkedIn. In a post, she explained that she was laid off and that other team members were cut from the studio as well.

"Hi everyone! I was affected by the layoffs at Firaxis, and am open to full-time writing work at your studio," she wrote. "I'm an incredibly adaptable writer who wrote on Civilization VII and Marvel's Midnight Suns during my (nearly) 5 years at the studio, and I encourage you to keep an eye out for my former colleagues who were also laid off."

Kidwell's post prompted our friends at Rock Paper Shotgun to reach out to 2K for comment, and a 2K spokesperson responded with a statement that confirms a "staff reduction" took place Thursday morning.

"We can confirm there was a staff reduction today at Firaxis Games, as the studio restructures and optimizes its development process for adaptability, collaboration, and creativity," said the spokesperson. The quiet announcement of the cuts and their timing is noteworthy, as much of the gaming community's attention is centered around the extremely highly anticipated launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong on Thursday.

Reportedly, the spokesperson also explained that 2K's policy is to not announce the specific amount of employees let go as a result of layoffs, meaning that at present, it's unclear just how many of Firaxis' developers have been affected. The use of the term "restructuring" suggests it could be a substantial number, though this is only speculation.

It's worth noting that roughly 30 developers were also laid off from the studio in 2023, with 2K's parent firm, Take-Two Interactive, going through with the cuts as part of a company-wide cost reduction measure. Take-Two also let nearly 600 workers go in 2024, or 5% of its staff, as it also cancelled several upcoming games it had a hand in creating.

The newest release from Firaxis was February's Civilization VII, the latest entry in the long-running grand strategy series that released on Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and macOS platforms.

Despite several post-launch updates from the studio intended to improve the experience, Civilization 7 overall has something of a controversial reputation, with just 49% of its 23,711 user reviews on Steam positive.

That's earned it the cautionary yellow "Mixed" rating on the platform. Scores on Xbox and PlayStation are similar, though it did score decently well with critics, as it has a 79/100 "Generally Favorable" rating on Metacritic.

Its previous title, 2022's turn-based deckbuilder Marvel's Midnight Suns, garnered a much stronger reception; it achieved a higher 83/100 score on Metacritic, and currently rests with a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, with 83% of its 10,703 user reviews giving it the blue thumbs up.

We find ourselves here yet again

These layoffs at Firaxis are the latest in a brutal and ongoing series of industry-wide cuts that have ravaged all of gaming throughout the last three years, with roughly 40,000 employees affected across various different developers and publishers.

They also come just one week after Tomb Raider steward Crystal Dynamics was hit by "necessary" layoffs for the second time this year, and in the wake of recent significant cuts at Microsoft and Xbox as well.

Notably, those saw Microsoft close down The Initiative and cancel the long-awaited Perfect Dark reboot as well; Take-Two Interactive, Firaxis' parent company, almost revived the project by making a deal with Microsoft, but the agreement fell through when long-term ownership of the property could not be agreed upon.

As I wrote last week in our coverage of the layoffs at Crystal Dynamics, it's incredibly frustrating to have to write headlines like these over and over and over, with countless game developers around the world losing their jobs.

Overinvestment into gaming during the pandemic, together with increasing development costs and numerous other global socioeconomic factors, has created a perfect storm to devastate the industry in recent years, and I sincerely hope that recovery and stabilization come sooner rather than later.

As always, my heart, as well as those of my colleagues here at Windows Central, goes out to all developers affected by these cuts, as well as any others.