Iron Galaxy Studios, the Illinois-based independent developer, has announced a round of layoffs that could affect as many as 90 people. It’s the second round of layoffs in as many years, with Iron Galaxy cutting 66 staff in 2025.
The studio announced the news on LinkedIn, writing, “Iron Galaxy Studios regrets to announce that we are reducing our company size.”
“We are terribly sorry to lose them as we take steps to adapt to the climate of the video game industry. It’s time for us to evolve again,” the studio said.
Iron Galaxy’s statement went on to say it is forming a “new company structure” as a result of the gaming industry overall seeing slowed growth coming out the pandemic.
“Ever since 2020, when everything about making video games started to change, people have been waiting for business ‘to get back to normal,'” the statement continued, “These are the conversations we’ve had with colleagues and partners on our travels to the places where game creators gather.”
Iron Galaxy said it is changing its structure to “accept these current market conditions as permanent.” The statement went on to say people are playing games today in “new ways” and publishers–who pay Iron Galaxy for contract work–today have “different criteria” for how they allocate resources.
“This new normal has impacted all our partners. As Iron Galaxy adapts, we must make painful decisions about what we can be as a company,” the studio said. “It’s impossible for us to sustain the team size that we’ve carried this past year, even after our downsizing from last year.”
Iron Galaxy’s statement did not specify the extent of the cuts, but Kotaku reported that as many as 90 people could lose their jobs.
Regarding the “new normal” that Iron Galaxy mentioned, it’s likely a reference to the industry-wide downsizing that’s occurred since the end of the pandemic. Numerous studios have scaled back since then by cancelling games, laying off staff, and closing studios entirely, while funding for new games is slowing down by some accounts. The live-service bubble looks like it’s going to burst, or already has, and experts are expecting the pain to continue in general for gaming in the future.
Iron Galaxy is perhaps best known as a work-for-hire studio that worked on various elements or editions of games like The Lord of the Rings Online, BioShock 2, Sleeping Dogs, various Batman Arkham games, Destiny, Fallout 76, Apex Legends, and Overwatch. Most recently, the studio built the PC editions of The Last of Us Parts I and II. In terms of its own projects, Iron Galaxy developed Rumbleverse, Killer Instinct Seasons 2 and 3, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 most recently.