Chivalry 2 Developer Torn Banner Studios Announces Layoffs

Toronto-based Torn Banner Studios, the team behind medieval first-person hit Chivalry 2 has announced that the studio has made the decision to restructure, which will result in some of the studios developers being laid off.

The announcement was made with a statement posted to LinkedIn and penned by the studio’s creative director and chief executive officer Steve Piggott, who announced earlier this year that the studio was done making new content for Chivalry 2.

“Today I want to share some unfortunate news for Torn Banner Studios,” Piggott began. “We have made the very difficult decision to undergo a restructure and reduce some of our talented workforce.”

“As a fully independent, self-funded developer, we’re up against many challenges. Our team is navigating this process with a tremendous amount of care and appreciation for those that are impacted. Torn Banner Studios would not be the place it is today without the dedication, passion and accomplishments of these great people.

Employees affected by this restructuring will be receiving severance packages and can keep their work computers. We’ll also be working hard to help people find positions at other studios where we can.”

Piggott continues to say that Torn Banner will hold fast to its “mission to craft unforgettable cinematic experiences” wherever they may be, and that its most recent release, No More Room In Hell 2 which launched in Early Access this past October is currently the studio’s focus, while it maintains work is continuing on its other projects, like the next Chivalry game.

He also clarifies that these layoffs will not impact Chivalry 2 or its servers, everything will continue as normal.

It’s unfortunate of course to have more layoffs announced so late in the year when people are trying to prepare for the holidays and the extra expense that comes with them. The severance packages and not needing to buy a new computer certainly helps, but they can’t replace a proper salary.

We don’t know how many developers were impacted in this case, since Piggott fails to provide any clarification, but his point about the studio being independent reveals the simple truth to these layoffs.

With Chivalry 2 no longer getting any new content, and No More Room In Hell 2 still just an Early Access release, there won’t be a lot of money coming into the studio in the short term.

Someone has seemingly crunched the numbers and deduced that the studio won’t be able to sustain itself at its current size until the next Chivalry game releases, and they can’t just bet on No More Room In Hell 2 suddenly exploding when it reaches its 1.0 release.

Hopefully all those impacted are able to land on their feet quickly.

Source – [Torn Banner Studios on LinkedIn]