Publisher of Banner Saga and Pillars of Eternity closed, all employees laid off shortly before Christmas

Versus Evil had released several indie hits in recent years. Now the company has been shut down and all projects have been taken over by tinyBuild

The indie publisher Versus Evil has been closed after ten years – against the will of the company, as the studio boss wrote on X (formerly Twitter). All 13 employees were laid off on December 22, 2023

In 2021, the larger publisher tinyBuild acquired the studio and closed it just two years later. All ongoing projects will be continued by tinyBuild.

Versus Evil: Ten years of publishing

Versus Evil was a publisher for games such as The Banner Saga and Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire as well as its DLCs and described itself as an indie publisher. They helped out smaller developer studios with funding, PR, community management and more.

Upcoming games from the studio would have included Broken Roads and Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients, which are now being created under the tinyBuilds umbrella.

The studio’s official statement on X (formerly Twitter) reads as follows:

Today is a sad day. After 10 wonderful years, Versus Evil is shutting its doors. We’ve loved bringing you the best indie games we could find & sharing so many happy memories with you all, our amazing community! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for everything!

– Versus Evil (@vs_evil) December 22, 2023

The personal statement from the former Head of Production, Lance James, sounds much more bitter. He makes it clear that the abrupt closure and the dismissal of all employees a few days before Christmas was not the decision of Versus Evil itself – implying that tinyBuilds decided to close the studio on its own.

It’s another closure in a long line of recent waves of layoffs and studio closures that cost thousands of employees in the video game industry their jobs in 2023

If our editor-in-chief Kevin’s prediction is correct, the gaming industry will continue to shed jobs in 2024. While 2023 was a year full of great releases, numerous studios have laid off both new and highly experienced developers. It remains to be seen how this will affect the quality of new games in the coming years.

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