IO Interactive says Project Fantasy isn't dead, but confirms that layoffs are happening
Overview & Key Takeaways
This isn't the sort of thing that should be happening a month after the release of a major, successful game like 007 First Light, but such is the way of the games industry.
XHitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive announced last week that it had lost funding for Project Fantasy, an "online fantasy RPG" first announced in 2023, and that as a result, "we have to adapt to this new reality and its short-term consequences, including staffing decisions." That sure sounded like layoffs were incoming, and today, the studio confirmed it, saying that it is closing its studio in Istanbul and beginning the layoff process for an unspecified number of employees.
"Following the end of our external finance partnership on Project Fantasy, IOI has regained full ownership of the project and our IP," the studio wrote on X. "We will continue to develop and fund it independently amongst our other projects.
"With this context, we had to find a new balance for the long-term future of the studio, focused on the success of our main internal core titles instead of external projects and potential mobile game derivatives. This has meant making changes as well as proposed changes across our studios: the closure of our Istanbul studio and starting a process to part ways with colleagues who have been a meaningful part of what makes IOI what it is."
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Prior to the announcement, IOI maintained five studios, thanks to significant expansion in recent years: It opened a new studio in Malmö in 2019, one in Barcelona in 2021, and two more, in Istanbul and Brighton, in 2023.
(Image credit: IO Interactive (Twitter))
IO Interactive didn't say who its external partner was when the end of funding was revealed last week but we assumed—and Bloomberg later stated—that it was Microsoft. The move came a week in advance of sweeping cuts at Microsoft's Xbox division, which announced yesterday that 3,200 employees are being put out of work. Xbox is also spinning off four of its studios: Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.
It's been an awful week for layoffs, and Lemon, it's only Tuesday, but the IO Interactive situation stands out as particularly awful and baffling because the studio released one of the biggest games of the year so far, 007 First Light, just over a month ago. A well-received, multi-million-selling game based on one of pop culture's most lucrative licenses should've been cause for celebration.
Instead, it's been mostly the opposite: Shortly after launch Amazon, which owns the license, refused to commit to bringing IOI back for future 007 games, and now this. Rubbing a bit of salt in that wound, the Hitman television series announced in 2017 was pronounced dead in March.
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"These are hard, but necessary decisions, in order to retain the long-term future of IO Interactive as one of the very few fully independent AAA developers and publishers, as well as to give Project Fantasy the best possible foundation to succeed under our own passion and direction," the studio wrote. "Project Fantasy is a game, a world, and an IP that we are wholly committed to, and we cannot wait to share the love with you."
IO Interactive said that because the process is still ongoing, it doesn't have further information to share on the number of people losing their jobs.
