Folks Can Fly cancels two video games and lays off builders

Folks Can Fly, the developer of Outriders and Gears of War: Judgement, introduced Monday that its ending development on two of its upcoming video games resulting from points with its writer and an incapacity to safe funding to proceed growth. As a part of this determination, Folks Can Fly shall be pressured “considerably regroup” and “scale down [its] groups,” the studio’s CEO Sebastian Wojciechowksi shared in a statement on LinkedIn.

The assertion does not elaborate on what number of workers shall be impacted by the cuts, however does name out Venture Gemini and Venture Bifrost as the 2 video games being cancelled. Folks Can Fly made the choice to close down Gemini as a result of the sport’s writer failed to offer a publishing settlement and did not talk “its willingness to proceed or terminate the Gemini venture.” With out that publishing deal or the funds to proceed engaged on Bifrost — a self-published VR recreation — the studio was pressured to cancel it, too.

This is not the primary time Folks Can Fly has shut down a venture or made cuts to its groups. In December 2024, the studio announced that it was ending growth on a recreation referred to as Venture Victoria and likewise lowering the variety of folks engaged on Bifrost. In that very same announcement, Folks Can Fly additionally revealed that Sq. Enix was publishing Gemini.

Folks Can Fly final labored with Sq. Enix to publish Outriders, considerably of a minor cult hit now, however not a commercial success at launch. Even with the cuts and cancelled video games, the studio nonetheless has a number of upcoming initiatives within the works, together with Project Delta, which Folks Can Fly is creating for Sony and Gears of War: E-Day, which the studio is co-developing with Xbox studio The Coalition.