Yesterday, Ubisoft announced that they were shuttering two of its development studios and laying off 277 employees. Sadly, those layoffs weren't the only ones that hit the gaming industry yesterday as Deceive Inc. developer, Sweet Bandits, also announced their own studio closure.
A post was made to the official Deceive Inc. forums yesterday morning announcing that the "Sweet Bandits team is no more."
Agents,
I come today with heartbreaking news that we must share with the entirety of the Deceive Inc. community. There is no easy way to say this: The Sweet Bandits team is no more. After a long and difficult road of trying to get Deceive inc. in a state where it could thrive, we have reached the breaking point for the studio, unable to continue this adventure with you.
While this is a moment of great sadness for us, we are happy to have been given the chance to create this universe and share it with you all. We were amazed by the passion of this community and this has been a driving force for us all along, pushing us to try and make this project reach the potential it has. We’ve put our heart and soul into this game and nothing makes us happier than seeing it resonate with other people across the world.
The path ahead is currently being charted by our partners at Tripwire Interactive. We are considering options, with the goal of maintaining the game that we all love. We will share news with everyone once we have more details. In the meantime, servers and game access will continue as they have been.
To close things off, I want to thank you all personally, not as Sweet Bandits, but as myself. I am so grateful for everything this community has done and I am deeply saddened that this is how it ends. Please keep the flame going, make Deceive Inc. yours, continue to share your art and stories. This is your universe now and forever.
With much love and a heavy heart,
Baribandit
I come today with heartbreaking news that we must share with the entirety of the Deceive Inc. community. There is no easy way to say this: The Sweet Bandits team is no more. After a long and difficult road of trying to get Deceive inc. in a state where it could thrive, we have reached the breaking point for the studio, unable to continue this adventure with you.
While this is a moment of great sadness for us, we are happy to have been given the chance to create this universe and share it with you all. We were amazed by the passion of this community and this has been a driving force for us all along, pushing us to try and make this project reach the potential it has. We’ve put our heart and soul into this game and nothing makes us happier than seeing it resonate with other people across the world.
The path ahead is currently being charted by our partners at Tripwire Interactive. We are considering options, with the goal of maintaining the game that we all love. We will share news with everyone once we have more details. In the meantime, servers and game access will continue as they have been.
To close things off, I want to thank you all personally, not as Sweet Bandits, but as myself. I am so grateful for everything this community has done and I am deeply saddened that this is how it ends. Please keep the flame going, make Deceive Inc. yours, continue to share your art and stories. This is your universe now and forever.
With much love and a heavy heart,
Baribandit
According to Sweet Bandits' own "About" section on their website, the studio employed 18 developers. This makes the total number of layoffs just from yesterday alone surpass 300 people.
A page that tracks game industry layoffs estimates that so far over 14,000 people have been laid off this year alone. The same site estimates that 10,500 people were laid off in 2023.
