The Until Dawn remake developer was laid off in a massive way just a month prior to the game's release.

Devs of the excellent PS4 horror remake Until Dawn have been laid off with exactly one month left until it finally hits PC. In a LinkedIn statement, UK studio Ballistic Moon revealed that it had taken "the difficult decision to significantly reduce our team in order to secure the future our studio."

The number of affected staff has not been revealed, but former devs are using social media to announce redundancies and look for new work (via Game Developer).

Harry Williams, a former BM developer, wrote: "After working for two years on the wonderful Until Dawn2024 at Ballistic Moon, I am unfortunately being made to redundant as a technical designer." "I was recently informed that my role as an animator at Ballistic Moon will be made redundant. Kshitij wrote, "I worked on Until Dawn with an amazing team of talented individuals for more than a full year." "As it is the current way of things," wrote Rudi Prentice former gameplay programmer, "I have unfortunately been made redundant from Ballistic Moon."

"As it is now" is correct. As you are almost certainly aware, it has been a bloodbath in the games industry for developers over the past two years. They have been laid off at studio after studio. The stress and instability of their jobs have caused developers to live under the sword of Damocles. They fear losing their livelihoods.

We published a chart at the beginning of the year that showed the impact of the over 16,000 layoffs which had ravaged the industry up to that point. If we were to revisit that chart now, it would paint an even more bleaker image. We've seen layoffs at Bungie Relic Intercept and many others, but Ballistic Moon is the most recent.

Until Dawn, a remake of the 2015 PS4 title from Dark Pictures and Supermassive Games' The Quarry studio, is scheduled to launch on 4 October. PCG is eager to try it out. The original game was a riotous good time, which put Supermassive Games on the map in its day. Its continued absence from PC has been a shame. Apparently, however, that enthusiasm wasn't enough to keep BM's developers from being axed.

I've contacted Ballistic Moon for more information on the layoffs. I'll update this article if I receive a response.