Destroy All Humans Remake Developer Black Forest Games Reportedly Lays Off 50 Employees

Black Forest Games, the studio behind the recent Destroy All Humans! 1 and 2 remakes, has reportedly laid off about 50 people. This news comes from Kotaku, which learned from a source with knowledge of the situation that these layoffs were announced yesterday, January 24, and that more information about them would be provided next week. 

Game Informer has reached out to Black Forest Games and will update this story if it learns more. 

Kotaku writes that its source says creative directors and most, «if not all,» of the managers at Black Forest Games will keep their jobs following the layoffs. At approximately 110 employees as of last year, 50 job cuts would equate to a roughly 50 percent reduction in staff at the studio. 

Last August, publisher THQ Nordic, which is owned by Embracer Group, revealed that Black Forest Games was developing a game based on the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novel, The Last Ronin. It's unclear if these layoffs will affect its development. 

These job cuts join a string of other disheartening 2024 layoffs, which total more than 5,500 in just the first 25 days of the year. Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees this week, and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees this week, too.  

We recently learned Lords of the Fallen Publisher CI Games was laying off 10 percent of its staff, that Unity would be laying off 1,800 people by the end of March, and that Twitch had laid off 500 employees. 

We also learned that Discord had laid off 170 employees, that layoffs happened at PTW, a support studio that's worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company, Thunderful Group, let go of roughly 100 people. Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people, too. 

Last year, more than 10,000 people in the games industry or game-adjacent