Palia Dev Lays Off 35 Percent of Workers Only a Few Months After Beta Release

Singularity 6 is the latest studio to be hit by layoffs, with the Palia developer confirming in a statement sent to IGN that it has laid off around 35 percent of its workers.

Reports of Singularity 6’s layoffs emerged Thursday when workers began posting the new on X/Twitter and other social media platforms. They included at least one environmental artist, an engineer, and other developers woking on Palia.

In its statement, Singularity 6 described it as a decision intended to “deliver the highest-quality gameplay service for long-term stability.”

Following Palia’s release on Steam, we evaluated the support needed to deliver the highest-quality gameplay service for long-term stability. We made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce, which impacted around 35 percent of our talented and hardworking team members. We value their contributions and are committed to supporting them throughout this process, including severance, work-placement and career guidance assistance, and retainment of all company-provided development equipment.

This decision was not made lightly, and comes after careful consideration of our development and business needs to support Palia and its community. We remain committed to delivering passion in imagination, and maintaining the dedication and creativity that our community expects and deserves. We appreciate your understanding and support of our studio and affected team members.

A free-to-play “massively multiplayer community sim,” Palia released to early access in October and Nintendo Switch in December. We called it a premise with “enormous potential,” but it currently has mixed reviews with an all-time peak of a little over 12,000 players on Steam. Back in March, Singularity 6 clarified that Palia is still in open beta and said it is committed to “new content, improvements, and bug fixes well into the future.”

Singularity 6 is one of many studios to be impacted by the games industry’s ongoing layoffs, which have caused an outcry among developers and players alike. In an interview published today, Larian’s publishing director called the layoffs an “avoidable f*ck up” and called for healthier industry practices.

For more, read about how games industry layoffs have impacted disabled game developers and more.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.