Hidden Path Entertainment, an independent game studio based in Bellevue, Wash., has laid off 44 employees.
The layoffs were confirmed Wednesday afternoon in a post on LinkedIn by CEO Jeff Pobst.
“For over six months, our team… has been in numerous active discussions to find replacement funding for an exciting RPG project,” Pobst wrote. “…We now have no choice but to pause development on that project and reduce the company size until we have an opportunity to return to it.”
Hidden Path currently lists 79 total employees on LinkedIn.
Pobst posted a Google Sheet that lists the affected employees at Hidden Path, as an aid to helping them find more work elsewhere. The dismissals include several project leads, an HR director, and multiple artists, programmers, and designers.
Hidden Path was founded in 2006. It’s known for tower defense series Defense Grid and VR games Brass Tactics and Witchblood. Hidden Path also collaborated with Microsoft to release an updated edition of Age of Empires II in 2013, and contributed to the development of its neighbor Valve Software’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Left 4 Dead 2.
In 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that it had partnered with Hidden Path, among several other internal and external studios, to make a new Dungeons & Dragons game. Wizards subsequently canceled production on many of its video game projects in early 2023, which was initially said to include whatever was underway at Hidden Path.
Later reports contradicted that, however, and at time of writing, Hidden Path’s website still lists its D&D game as being in development.
The layoffs at Hidden Path are the latest in a series of dismissals that has plagued every sector of the international video game industry since last year. Almost 6,400 employees at gaming companies have lost their jobs in 2024 to date. Forces such as more cautious investors, interest rates, and overall market saturation have led to this wave of layoffs.
