Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs lays off 9% of studio

Story by Nicole Carpenter • Yesterday 

Image: Phoenix Labs

Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs has laid off 9% of the studio, the company confirmed to Polygon Monday. The layoffs were announced internally last week; several employees tweeted about the layoffs. It comes months after the company was spun out of Singapore-based Garena, which acquired the studio in January 2020.

Management, backed by investors, bought Phoenix Labs from Garena in February 2023 to take the company private, according to Venture Beat. Phoenix Labs said at that time it had 30 titles in different stages of development, and announced that Dauntless reached 30 million players. Phoenix Labs declined to share exactly how many people are impacted by the layoff, nor would it confirm how many people it employs. LinkedIn lists Phoenix Labs’ employee base at 308 people, suggesting roughly 30 people were impacted by the layoff.

Phoenix Labs has employees in both the United States and Canada.

“As part of the reorganization, we worked diligently to find new assignments for as many employees as possible,” a Phoenix Labs representative said. “While we succeeded in reassigning many people, there were cases where we had to part ways with some talented folks. In total, 9% of our total employees have been affected, including some out of Montreal and some working remotely in the United States. In addition to severance and benefits coverage extensions, we’ve offered assistance for job placement in an effort to ease transition for all affected employees.”

Phoenix Labs has not announced its new projects, but noted they have a “wide range” in style and genre. Fae Farm, a co-op farming game, is expected out in 2023. The company is also still supporting free-to-play role-playing game Dauntless, which was originally released in 2019.