Many were looking forward to Palia, an MMO that follows in the footsteps of Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon. The relaxed life simulation has now launched on Steam. But the online game launched with some problems and only lukewarm reviews. The developers will now have an even harder time improving the game: 35% of the employees will be laid off.
This is the message: Studio Singularity 6, the developer of Palia, said in a statement to IGN that it has laid off approximately 35% of its workforce.
The employees had previously reported their dismissal on Twitter and other platforms.
The layoffs come just a week after the MMO Palia launched on Steam on March 25th.
Palia | Steam Release Date Announce Trailer
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“Decision made to reduce workforce”
That’s what the studio says: The statement reads:
After releasing Palia on Steam, we evaluated the support necessary to provide a high-quality gaming service for long-term stability. We made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce, affecting approximately 35 percent of our talented and hard-working team members. We value their input and are committed to supporting them throughout this process. This includes severance pay, job placement support and career advice, as well as retention of all development equipment provided by the company.
This decision was not made lightly and came after careful consideration of our development and business needs to support Palia and its community. We will continue to work with passion and imagination, maintaining the dedication and creativity that our community expects and deserves. We thank you for your understanding and support for our studio and the affected team members.
Singularity 6 Palia launches with balanced reviews on Steam
How is Palia going? The free2play MMO Palia launched on Steam on March 25th. It currently only has “Balanced Reviews” after 4193 reviews:
Palia had 11,900 players at its peak, and in the last 24 hours the peak on Steam was 7,922.
It’s still very early to judge the game’s success or failure, but the layoffs now show that the studio may have miscalculated its revenue. Ultimately, what matters for the success of a Free2Play game is not how many people play it, but how much each player spends on the game.
What kind of game is this? Palia is an attempt to take the stress out of MMOs. It wants to offer players a relaxed gaming experience.
Behind this is apparently the enormous success of life simulations such as Stardew Valley or the pandemic game par excellence Animal Crossing.
New MMORPG doesn’t have any fights at all, but is still successful