Bulletstorm and Painkiller devs People Can Fly let over 120 people go and suspend or downsize projects

Now "focusing on the development of a single independent game"

Bulletstorm, Painkiller and Outriders developers People Can Fly are "suspending or parting ways" with over 120 people, shelving one video game project, downsizing another, and "restructuring some of our support teams" in the face of market turmoil.

"This action became necessary as external market pressures persisted beyond our forecasts," writes chief executive officer Sebastian Wojciechowski on Xitter. "The video game market is still evolving, and we have to adjust with where things are today. We are redoubling our efforts with new work for hire engagements and focusing on the development of a single independent game."

Based in Warsaw, People Can Fly date back to 2002, finding early success with FPS Painkiller. They collaborated extensively with Epic Games during the noughties, and became a subsidiary of the Gears studio in 2012. Since splitting from Epic in 2015, they've expanded significantly, founding a satellite studio in Newcastle in 2017, another Polish studio in Rzeszów in 2018, and a fourth studio in New York in 2019. They became a public company in 2020, subsequently acquiring Phosphor Studios, Game On, and Incuvo Studios. By 2023, People Can Fly had over 600 staff, with seven projects on the books that July.

But People Can Fly haven't escaped the industry's on-going economic troubles, which have led to thousands of layoffs this year as company leaders "realign" in the wake of a gaming boom created by pandemic lockdown conditions. In January this year, they dismissed 30 developers who were working on an unannounced Square Enix game. In April, they announced the cancellation of a co-op action-RPG codenamed Project Dagger, which was once to be published by GTA 6 company Take-Two.

People Can Fly's last release was Bulletstorm VR, an updated, magic-headset version of the shooter in which you boot mooks into cacti or swing them around with an energy leash. In theory, their next one will be Project Gemini, which is expected sometime in 2026. Best of luck to everybody who has lost their jobs this week, just a couple of weeks before the seasonal holidays.