Phoenix Labs, the studio behind titles like Dauntless and Fae Farm, has announced that it has laid off most of its employees. The studio made the announcement through a post on LinkedIn, where it called the layoffs “unfortunate but necessary.”
“Today is another difficult day at Phoenix Labs,” says the announcement. “We have made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations.”
“We recognize and deeply appreciate the contributions of every individual impacted. Their talent, dedication, and creativity have left an indelible mark on our company and our games.”
The studio hasn’t revealed details on exactly how many of its employees were let go, nor has it announced future plans for Dauntless or Fae Farm. Its statement did mention that more details about the two titles will be announced in the coming weeks, however.
“To our industry peers, we encourage you to reach out to these exceptional individuals – they are some of the best in the business,” wrote the studio.
The move has followed a similar round of layoffs back in May 2024, where the studio also cancelled several unannounced projects that were being developed at the time. The decision was made back then for Phoenix Labs to focus more on live service titles. At the time, reports indicated that more than 100 developers would be part of the layoffs.
The move follows a massive drop in the player base for Dauntless, which essentially scrapped its entire original design philosophy of trying to be a new take on the Monster Hunter genre. Changes made to the title brought it more in line with an action RPG where monsters wouldn’t be the big bosses that the title was originally well-regarded for.
The changes made to Dauntless were described by Phoenix Labs as being part of an attempt to create a “strong foundation” on which continuous development would take place as part of a new seasonal content model. Since this update, however, player feedback has been incredibly negative. For context, at the time of writing, Dauntless sits at a review aggregate of Mostly Negative for recent reviews, and Overwhelmingly Negative for all reviews.
Fae Farm, in contrast, seems to have avoided the studio’s live service ambitions, with its player base still enjoying the title. On Steam, this amounts to Very Positive ratings, both for recent reviews and all reviews.
