TinyBuild, the games label behind the Hello Neighbor series, laid off the entire staff at indie publisher Versus Evil under the TinyBuild umbrella just days before the holidays. The news comes from various former vs. evil employees on Twitter.
“Unfortunately our parent company has made the decision to lay off the entire team at Versus Evil,” writes former Versus Evil community manager Chris Trippi. Tweet. Another former marketing and community manager with the publisher writes a Tweet“Tinibuild fired me and the entire Versus Evil team.”
The official Versus Evil Twitter account posted the following:
“Today is a sad day. After 10 wonderful years, Versus Evil is closing its doors. We loved bringing you the best indie games we could find and sharing many happy memories with all of you with our wonderful community. From our hearts, thank you for everything.”
Today is a sad day. After 10 amazing years, Versus Evil is closing its doors. We love bringing you the best indie games we can find and our amazing community, sharing many happy memories with all of you! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for everything! ♥️
— vs. evil 🛡️ (@vs_evil) December 22, 2023
Several others sharing the news shared similar tweets.
After being at Versus Evil for about 3 years as a community manager – the company was shut down with all staff laid off.
Effective immediately I am looking for a new Community Manager role. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
– Rezza ✨ (@RezzananceTV) December 22, 2023
Whelp. It’s been a fun 10 year ride. The entire Versus Evil team has just been fired.
— Lance James (@Myll_Erik) December 22, 2023
TinyBuild has not disclosed the layoffs.
Versus Evil was founded in 2013 to support and publish indie games. Its “About” page says, “Versus Evil has a full suite of services to support the indie games they publish; marketing, PR, influencer outreach, social media, community, QA, localization and development services to reach other platforms.”
Versus Evil has published games on PlayStation, Xbox, PC and mobile platforms and worked with indie studios around the world, including locations such as North America, South America and Europe. Versus Evil-published games include First Class Trouble and the Switch versions of Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
These Versus Evil layoffs unfortunately join an ever-growing list of layoffs that will affect workers in the games industry and industries adjacent to games in 2023. Last week, Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering parent company Hasbro laid off 1,100 employees, and the same week, Embracer Group officially shut down its advanced TimeSplitters team, Free Radical Design.
A few weeks ago, 505 Games’ parent company Digital Brothers laid off 30 percent of its staff.
Last month, Amazon Games laid off 180 employees. In early November, we learned that Ubisoft had laid off more than 100 employees. The week before that, Destiny 2 developer Bungie laid off nearly 100 employees.
In January, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees amid its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was completed last month.
In August, Striking Distance Studios, the team behind last year’s The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees, and the same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including longtime studio veterans. The following month, in September, Immortals of Avium developer Ascendant Studios laid off about 45% of its staff.
Just last month, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees and Telltale Games underwent layoffs, although the actual number of laid off employees has not yet been disclosed. And in late October, Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees.
hearts Game Informer Staff are with everyone affected by these layoffs.