One of the oldest game development studios ‘Cyan Worlds’ recently reported layoffs for almost half of the studio members due to current industry conditions. Founded back in 1987, the studio is best known for the Myst franchise and has been around for almost four decades. The layoffs were done in order to keep the studio around for a bit longer.
“Today we would like to share with you some very unfortunate news. Despite our best efforts to avoid it, Cyan has made the difficult decision to reduce our overall staff size - resulting in the layoff of 12 talented staff members, roughly half the team - effective at the end of March,” the post read.
The Myst series was originally released back in 1993 as a point-and-click game and became quite popular for its fun gameplay and puzzles. Over the years, the studio has developed many other games in the series that were published by some popular names nowadays like Ubisoft and Activision. However, the past few years have been challenging.
Tough times for game development studios
The gaming industry has been quite brutal for the past few years. While small indie games have received a lot of attention there are a lot of others getting buried. 2024 saw almost 19,000 games released on Steam and three months into 2025, we have already crossed 4,000 games. Most of them are slop games but they do a good job burying hidden gems.
Also Read: Ubisoft employees reportedly worried about another round of layoffs after recent announcement
“Industry conditions have forced us into a tricky spot where we are having to weigh the future health of our studio against the month-to-month realities of game development in 2025. Throughout the past year, we have been ultra-transparent with the entire Cyan team about the choppy waters we find ourselves in, as well as the dangers ahead,” the statement further added.
Last year, Cyan Worlds released a full 3D remake of Riven, a sequel to Myst which also received a remake back in 2020, however, amid the increasing number of games, these OG titles have been praised by fans but the development cost is rising rapidly. Currently, the studio is looking to fund its next project meaning they don’t plan on stopping despite the loss of a sizable workforce.
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