Omega Strikers developer Odyssey Interactive has change into the newest studio to be hit by layoffs, with round 50% of the studio’s workforce apparently affected.
That is based on a publish by (now-former) Odyssey Interactive artist Jordan Ewing, who says that he, together with “roughly 50% of the workforce”, has been let go. Odyssey itself does not seem to have formally confirmed the layoffs wherever.
You may acknowledge Odyssey Interactive’s identify from “footbrawler” Omega Strikers, which was launched in September 2022. Simply eight months or so after its launch, lively content material improvement on Omega Strikers was halted, and the studio pivoted to different initiatives as an alternative.
Upon the cessation of standard updates for Omega Strikers, Odyssey pledged to maintain the sport’s servers open so gamers may proceed to play. A fast have a look at the sport’s Steam charts reveals a 24-hour peak of simply over 200 gamers.
Up to now, Omega Strikers stays Odyssey Interactive’s solely launched recreation. In September 2024, the developer revealed a platform fighter known as Byte Breakers, holding playtesting on Steam regardless of the admission that the studio “may not even make this recreation”.
At time of writing, the announcement of Byte Breakers’ playtest stays the final video uploaded to the Odyssey YouTube channel, and the standing of the mission is unknown, though these layoffs do not precisely instil confidence.
Sadly, Odyssey is simply the newest in an more and more lengthy string of builders and publishers to be hit by layoffs. In current months alone, others embrace Splinter Cell remake developer Ubisoft Toronto, Riot Video games’ 2XKO workforce, and Ashes of Creation’s Intrepid Studios.
The marketplace for aggressive live-service video games is rising more and more fierce and cutthroat, and it is turning into increasingly more frequent for smaller studios like Odyssey (or, certainly, like Highguard developer Wildlight) to slide by means of the cracks.
For now, it looks as if Odyssey Interactive stays a going concern, though I sadly cannot think about that the studio has too vivid a future forward of it with no main success below its belt. Keep tuned for extra.
