It’s been another tough week in the video game industry with Microsoft announcing another round of layoffs at the Xbox division and staff resigning at Annapurna Interactive. Now, to unfortunately add to this, Penny’s Big Breakaway developer Evening Star has announced it’s had to let go of some of its team.
In a statement via social media, Evening Star CTO Hunter Bridges revealed the small-sized developer parted ways with six team members due to “volatile market conditions”. Here’s the full message:
“Unfortunately, due to volatile market conditions in the games industry and operational realities of our business, Evening Star is having to part ways with 6 team members from our Penny’s Big Breakaway development team. This isn’t a choice we wanted to make, as they are all very talented and valued individuals.”
Christian Whitehead shared his own response, mentioning how this decision was an “unvoidable reality” for the team:
“I have some sad but important news to share. We didn’t want to reduce our team size but it is now an unavoidable reality for us. Those leaving are such lovely, well rounded and capable team mates so anyone hiring please reach out”
Penny’s Big Breakway made its debut on the Switch and multiple other platforms earlier this year in March. It was well-received (we said it was great in our review) and was the first project from Evening Star, the same talent that also worked on Sonic Mania.
