Ballistic Moon, a UK-based studio behind the upcoming Until Dawn remake, has been hit with layoffs. An unspecified number of devs lost their jobs weeks before the game’s release.
Until Dawn (2024)
UPDATE (September 3): Ballistic Moon confirmed the job cuts on LinkedIn, citing “complex challenges” across the games industry. Without disclosing the exact number of employees being laid off, the company noted that it had to “significantly scale down” the team following the development of the Until Dawn remake.
Original article (September 2): Several Ballistic Moon employees reported the job cuts over the weekend (first spotted on ResetEra). “Like many others in this wonderful but turbulent industry, I am sadly being made redundant from my role as a Junior Game Designer at Ballistic Moon,” Cassy Cornish wrote on LinkedIn.
Another developer, Harry Williams, wrote: “After two exciting years working on the wonderful Until Dawn 2024 at Ballistic Moon I am unfortunately being made redundant as a Technical Designer, I’ve loved working with everyone at BM and hope I cross paths with members of that family in future projects!”
Ballistic Moon has yet to confirm the layoffs, but a quick search on LinkedIn shows that several other employees have made posts about losing their jobs in the past few days. The list includes senior producer Max Brode, lighting artist Tomos Frater, 3D animator Kshitij Gupta, junior implementation designer Cameron Savage, as well as gameplay programmers Renan Ferreira de Almeida, Rudi Prentice, and Stuart Campbell.
“I’ve spent 3 years working with some of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, it’s a real shame it ends this way, but also unavoidable,” Frater noted.
Some devs have also updated their status to “Open to work,” including creative producer Melissa Bugarella, lead lighting artist Javert Valbarr, and studio animation director Gary Welch, though there is no 100% confirmation that their roles have been terminated.
Ballistic Moon was founded in 2019 by Duncan Kershaw, Chris Lamb, and Neil McEwan. They all worked at Supermassive Games, a studio responsible for the original Until Dawn. The remake, developed with Unreal Engine 5, is expected to come out on October 4 for PlayStation 5 and PC.