Bithell Games announces layoffs

Bithell Games confirms major layoffs after funding challenges, affecting eleven full-time positions.

Bithell Games Lays Off Majority of Full-Time Staff

Bithell Games has announced layoffs that affect the majority of its full-time workforce after the studio failed to secure a new large-scale project. Eleven roles are being made redundant, a move disclosed by founder Mike Bithell on social media.

The studio says severance pay will be provided and that ongoing support for self-published titles will continue. Bithell also encouraged other studios to consider the affected staff for future opportunities, underscoring a sense of shared industry responsibility amid tougher funding conditions across 2024 and 2025.

Independent and mid-sized studios increasingly face a funding crunch as publishers tighten budgets and investment partners become scarce. Bithell Games aims to be transparent about the challenges, but the news highlights a broader pattern: good teams can struggle when big projects fail to materialize. The layoffs show how talent and morale are tightly bound to the rhythm of external funding, not just internal performance.

For workers, the shift is personal and disruptive. For the industry, it raises questions about how small studios survive between project cycles and what safety nets exist for creative teams when revenue streams dry up. The move may press studios to diversify funding, pursue smaller, steadier releases, or explore service work to keep staff on payroll longer.

Highlights

The industry will watch how Bithell Games navigates the next funding cycle and whether this signals a wider shift in studio resilience.