Several The Molasses Flood employees have said they were laid off from the studio. This comes right after CD Projekt announced the successful reboot of Project Sirius, a multiplayer Witcher title developed by its Boston subsidiary.
The Witcher 3
UPD: CD Projekt confirmed the layoffs to Kotaku, saying that it has parted ways with 21 employees in the US and eight in Poland. Overall, 29 people were fired. “Because the project changed, so has the composition of the team that’s working on it–mainly on The Molasses Flood’s side,” the company stated.
On May 12, former employees of The Molasses Flood shared the news on Twitter (thanks, GamesRadar). The reasons and scope of the layoffs remain unclear, but at least a producer, two environment artists, and a narrative designer were fired.
One of them is art producer Caryn M. Boehm, who was responsible for managing task planning and tracking for art teams (via her LinkedIn profile). “In one week, I’ve finished my Masters in Media Management and been laid off from my dream job,” she wrote.
True, unfortunately. In one week, I’ve finished my Masters in Media Management and been laid off from my dream job. I’m taking a few days to recover from the whiplash before fully updating my online presence, but you can start learning about me at https://t.co/dBMoVGoTnx.
— Caryn M. Boehm (@carynmboehm) May 13, 2023
Technical narrative designer Robert Bailey, who worked on implementing game systems and creating tools for the narrative team, noted that he wasn’t the only one laid off from the studio.
According to LinkedIn, The Molasses Flood employs a little over 40 people, so even a small number of layoffs could affect the team.
Neither the studio nor CD Projekt have commented on the job cuts. Perhaps they have something to do with the recent restructure of Project Sirius, a standalone story-driven Witcher game with multiplayer elements that was first announced in October 2022 as part of CD Projekt’s updated strategy.
In March, the Polish company decided to write off $10 million in expenses related to Project Sirius after evaluating the scope of the game and its concept. Despite some rumors about the cancellation of the game, CD Projekt announced last week a “conclusion of work on defining a new framework” for the project and canceled a write-off of $5.2 million of the initially announced amount.
It is still unclear what the game will look like. The Molasses Flood, founded by former BioShock and Halo developers, is best known for its survival titles, The Flame in the Flood and Drake Hollow.