In more disheartening whispers of layoffs in the gaming industry, it seems that Survios, the VR developer that brought us a pretty fun take on a Xenomorph-infested world in Rogue Incursion, might be shutting its doors after laying off the bulk of its developers.
As spotted by GameDeveloper, combat designer Dylan Ralston said on LinkedIn, “I was informed today that Survios as it currently stands will be essentially shuttered, with all of the team members responsible for development being let go, including myself.” He called the company “wonderful” to work for and provided “much-needed security to my family during a very rough moment in not only my life, but the games industry as a whole.”
Senior game designer Alissa Smith was also impacted “along with the majority of the development team.” “I have been working there for the past 3 years, and was fortunate enough to work on the release of Alien: Rogue Incursion, not only on all major VR platforms, but also on the flatscreen adaptation and subsequent console ports.”
Tim Schumann, who worked as a senior technical sound designer, added, “Unfortunately, today is my day to post about losing my job in the games industry. It’s a sad day, and I wish the best for everyone who worked at Survios…As for me, I saw this coming a while ago. I am going to take a bit of time to re-evaluate my position in the games industry. Games are still my first passion and hobby, but I’d be lying if I said the last couple of years didn’t have me re-evaluating my place in this industry.”
It’s a surprising turn of events, coming hot on the heels of a Switch 2 port for Rogue Incursion, which was to be followed by a sequel that continued its story after the first title ended on a cliffhanger. However, it’s disappointingly likely that we might never get to see how things pan out for Zula – or the recently announced PS4 report – if reports of Survios shutting down are true.
It would be quite a shame, considering that Rogue Incursion: Part One was pretty entertaining in its finest hours, and a reasonably good package overall. There is no official confirmation or denial from Survios of its status at this time, but stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.
