Thunderful layoffs affect Jumpship, the Somerville team Thunderful bought to make a sequel to Somerville

Thunderful, a publisher in the indie game space responsible for hits such as the Steamworld series and Planet of Lana, announced another round of layoffs

Thunderful

Thunderful, a publisher in the indie game space responsible for hits such as the Steamworld series and Planet of Lana, announced another round of layoffs, and it includes small studio Jumpship this time. Thunderful just bought Jumpship in 2022, following the success of the studio’s debut project Somerville, a sci-fi game about family bonds and alien invasions.

Jumpship CEO Dino Patti said on LinkedIn that the team was in the middle of developing Somerville’s sequel when Thunderful made its latest round of cuts.

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"The situation is deeply moving and disappointing, as it means parting with the world-class team at Jumpship," Patti said in the post "If any studios are hiring, please let me/us know—our team includes some exceptional talent that we would be proud to help place."

When Thunderful purchased Jumpship in 2022, as the acquisition frenzy started quieting down ahead of mass layoffs, the general idea was that the purchase would help Jumpship continue developing successful narrative games, such as a sequel to Somerville.

”As part of Thunderful Studios, Jumpship will retain entrepreneurial freedom and creative autonomy and continue to develop high-class, story-driven narrative games, while the studio will also have access to the support functions that Thunderful Games has built up in its integrated, decentralised structure,” Thunderful’s then-interim CEO Anders Maiqvist said at the time.

Thunderful’s decision to restructure again, following a previous attempt in January 2024, comes as the studio says it has cash issues. The publisher’s current CEO, Martin Walfisz, said the layoffs are aimed at reducing costs and fixing the company’s current “negative cash flow” situation.

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This kind of situation became increasingly common after the acquisition mania of 2021-2022. Corporations overspent on studio purchases and overestimated their predicted profits and, when interest rates rose and people started spending less on video games, began laying off employees in the hundreds – often, as in the case of Epic Games, while still boasting of record engagement and large-scale plans for the future. Others, particularly Embracer Group, bought multiple studios and slowly closed them, canceling their projects, leaving staff to find work in an increasingly restricted labor market, and splitting into several companies to remain afloat.

Some analysts predict the games industry will see a resurgence in 2025. How that may affect those currently looking for work – and how long any positive benefits from a surge might take to trickle down to employees – remains to be seen.