Wayfinder Studio Airship Syndicate Lays Off 12 Of Its Staff While Its Top Brass Take Pay Cuts
Wayfinder developer and now-publisher Airship Syndicate is the latest video game company to be hit with layoffs.
According to Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter, the studio recently laid off 12 of its employees, the scope of which is still unclear, while Airship Syndicate president Ryan Stefanelli and CEO Joe Madureira will be taking pay cuts as part of the studio’s cost-cutting efforts and restructuring.
“This decision was made to ensure that Airship Syndicate can continue to operate and deliver great experiences,” a studio representative told Carpenter.
With mass layoffs sweeping across the video game industry and thousands of jobs now lost, it’s refreshing to see that there are executives willing to sacrifice part of their salaries for the good of the many. Bigger companies like Microsoft laid off thousands of employees over the past year, but none of their executives, who presumably have higher salaries, took pay cuts.
In any case, Airship Syndicate continues to make steady progress on Wayfinder following a rather rocky early access launch last year. How the layoffs will affect the action MMORPGs development remains to be seen.
Layoffs are happening today at Wayfinder developer Airship Syndicate, several people have told me. Scope unclear at this time, but have reached out to the company for more info. Last year, publisher Digital Extremes divested from Wayfinder and also laid off workers.
— Nicole Carpenter (@sweetpotatoes) January 31, 2024