The developer of the new free-to play shooter Spectre Divide has just laid off thirteen employees. He says it was necessary 'to sustain Spectre and its communities for the long-term'

Mountaintop Studios, the developer of Spectre Divi, has confirmed the layoffs of 13 employees. The company said that the move was necessary to secure the future of the game as well as its community.

"To ensure we're prepared to support Spectre, its community and the studio for the long-term, we made the difficult decision to cut 13 full-time positions at the studio," Mountaintop's co-founder and CEO Nate Mitchell stated in a statement reported first by Polygon's Nicole Carpenter. "We cannot thank these team members for their hardwork and dedication to Spectre over the past few years."

A Mountaintop representative confirmed this statement in an email sent to PC Gamer.

Spectre Divide is a free-to play 3v3 tactical shooting game where each player controls 2 characters. It was only released a few weeks back, on September 3. Morgan Park, a staff writer and digital-gunfight enthusiast, liked it a lot. He said after a prerelease preview that he "cannot stop thinking about when i'll get to try it next." The actual launch was a bit bumpy, with some eye-popping prices for gun skins (which were quickly lowered) and the usual launch-day server problems that prompted a flood negative reviews that are still reflected on the "mixed user rating."

Spectre Divide, on the other hand, seems to be doing well for itself. The concurrent player count consistently holds in the mid-thousands. It's not a big hit, but it's a good place to start. The $40 Concord was so unpopular that it only lasted for a few weeks.

These cuts are unfortunately just the latest in a decimation of the game industry that has been underway since 2023. On top of Mountaintop's layoffs, September saw people laid off at Airship Syndicate and Evening Star. Microsoft, Midnight Society as well as Lost Boys Interactive, Ballistic Moon and Rocksteady also lost their jobs. There's still one week left.