SteamWorld creator Thunderful announces 80-100 more layoffs as part of second round of "restructuring"

Thunderful Group, which develops and publishes the acclaimed SteamWorld series alongside several other titles, has announced it’s laying off between 80 and 100 employees as part of its second round of “restructuring” in less than a year – saying it sees “no other alternatives in order to ensure the Group’s long-term sustainability and resilience”.

Thunderful came into being in 2017 after the merger of Swedish indie developers Image & Form and Zoink, and has since expanded to including several other publishers and developers, including Cloud Gardens studio Coatsink and Somerville developer Jumpship. In January, the company announced it was laying off around 20 percent of its staff as part of a “restructuring programme” management believed would “strengthen the Group’s long-term competitive position”, but it now seems Thunderful failed to achieve its initial goal.

In an statement shared on its website, Thunderful – which also divested its distribution business earlier this year – confirmed it was undertaking a further round of restructuring as it looks to scale back internal development and ‘double down’ on third-party game publishing.

“Whilst significant reductions in cost levels were achieved this year,” it explained, “revenue targets have not been met and the Group is still struggling with negative cash flow.” As a result, the company has made the decision to lay off a “large portion of the development team”, impacting between 80 and 100 employees. Thunderful says its shift from in-house development to external publishing will “reduce the Group’s fixed costs and allow for greater flexibility, enabling faster, diverse game releases by leveraging external talent and resources in a balanced manner, while still retaining some internal development capacity.”