Devolver Digital subsidiary System Era Softworks (SES) has laid off 30 employees after its latest release, Starseeker, underperformed after launching into early access.
The Seattle studio confirmed the news in a statement shared on Discord (via Reddit). System Era communications and marketing director Joe Tirado offered more context in another thread on Reddit, where he explained the launch of Starseeker represented a "big bet" that didn't pay off.
"First off, I am personally devastated today. SES is losing a lot of amazing people that any company would be lucky to have. In the short term we are super focused on putting the word out for them so they can land on their feet," wrote Tirado.
"Regarding the decision, I am sure no one is surprised, but we had to make these cuts because Starseeker underperformed at Early Access launch. We made a big bet and it didn't go the way we planned, so the Starseeker team is getting smaller while they make a sustainable push to 1.0 that matches the userbase size. We have had hundreds of thousands of players since launch, so we want to do right by them and are committed to making the game better for 1.0."
Tirado said System Era chose to downsize to "preserve longevity" for its remaining team and said Astroneer—the company's debut release—is still capable of supporting a smaller workforce.
"Astroneer is still very successful as a game, but the continued success of it could not sustain the cost of keeping everyone that we hired to ship Starseeker," he added.
"With this change, the in-house Astroneer team is actually getting bigger; longtime team members are moving back to Astroneer as we bring all development for it back under our roof. Way too early to talk about roadmaps, but expect to see more info soon. Internal conversations about plans for 2027 are already underway."
Tirado encouraged fans to share how they feel about the news and whether System Era made the right calls on Starseeker, but stressed the company's ethos has not changed.
"We want to make games for you all to enjoy, we want to do it sustainably (without any generative AI lol), and we want to be transparent with you every step of the way," he added.
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