Mob Entertainment has laid off 16 members of the Escape From Playtime development team just weeks after the horror title launched into early access on Steam.
The U.S. indie studio confirmed the news in a statement to Vertical Slice, but said it will continue supporting the multiplayer project.
"Mob Entertainment has made the hard decision to downsize our Escape From Playtime team. This results in 16 departures, the minority of which were permanent employees. We have a number of dedicated employees continuing work on the game and delivering on the roadmap features," said a company rep.
"We want to be absolutely clear about the future of the game: Escape From Playtime is continuing development. We're committed to supporting the game through early access, and our plans to bring it to a full 1.0 launch haven’t changed. We believe in the game and have already made roadmap changes based on community feedback."
The studio is known for creating survival horror franchise Poppy Playtime, a free-to-play title that is regularly updated with paid DLC in the form of 'chapters.'
In 2024, Deadline reported that Mob had partnered with Legendary Entertainment to develop and produce a live-action Poppy Playtime movie.
Escape From Playtime represents the second Poppy Playtime spin-off released by Mob. The first, Project Playtime, was eventually abandoned by the studio and delisted before ever making it out of early access.
It's unclear how well Escape From Playtime has performed, although it's worth reiterating that, as an early access release, it technically hasn't even launched yet.
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
