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[LectureMaster]

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Developer Deck Nine Announces Its Second Round of Layoffs in 2024 - IGN

After laying off 20% of its staff early in 2024, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure studio Deck Nine has announced that it's been hit with more layoffs to end the year.

www.ign.com

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After laying off 20% of its staff early in 2024, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure studio Deck Nine has announced that it's been hit with more layoffs to end the year.

In a statement posted to X/Twitter, Deck Nine Games CEO Mark Lyons wrote they'd have to "say goodbye to some of our talented team members," but didn't specify how many would be affected by the cuts.


"This was an extremely difficult decision and reflects the challenging times many companies in our industry are currently facing," Lyons wrote. "We are extremely grateful to every individual who has dedicated their hard work, passion and commitment to making transformative entertainment with us."

Deck Nine, which is also behind Life Is Strange entries Before the Storm and True Colors as well as The Expanse: A Telltale Series, released Double Exposure to positive reviews (IGN gave it a 9/10) at the end of October. The studio, however, has been plagued with issues before today's layoffs; earlier this year, we at IGN ran an extensive report about its internal struggles with toxicity, hate speech, crunch, and more.

Deck Nine announced the last round of layoffs in February. Prior to those layoffs, IGN understood the studio employed roughly between 100 and 130 staffers. It's unclear how many remain after the two rounds of layoffs this year. Deck Nine laid off around 30 employees in May 2023 as well.

The original developer of Life Is Strange, Don't Nod, also announced layoffs in October after canceling two in-development projects amid a reorganization.

Today's Deck Nine announcement is unfortunately only the latest layoff news to hit the games industry as the year wraps up. Earlier this week, Ubisoft revealed that it would be shutting down two production studios and laying off 277 employees in the process.

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[LectureMaster]

 

[Thebonehead]

So sorry for they / them

 

[Xtib81]

Another one bites the dust.

 

[winjer]

So those modern audiences, also didn't show up for this game.

 

[Outlier]

It sucks they can't maintain the upkeep, but it's better than shutting down.

Wait. Double Exposure came out, already!?

I didn't see any news or conversations about it.

What happened!?

Edit:

Damn. Seems the game has disappointed, compared to the OG.
I really liked LIS1.

 

[Perrott]

It sucks they can't maintain the upkeep, but it's better than shutting down.

Wait. Double Exposure came out, already!?

I didn't see any news or conversations about it.

What happened!?

Game is a fucking disgrace to the original Life is Strange. That happened.

 

[Skifi28]

So those modern audiences, also didn't show up for this game.

Rare incel victories everywhere.

 

[Nankatsu]

Game is called Double Exposure.

Developer exposes layoffs a second time this year.

 

[N0S]

Go woke go broke

 

[Interfectum]

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Do nothing, win

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Lmao they/them/it/shit already got tons of woke game flops throughout this year. Looks like another one gets added in.

 

[Bojji]

Rare incel victories everywhere.

Not so rare anymore?

 

[R3TRO]

That's disappointing.

I've like what I've played so far in LiS DE; The graphics are great.

 

[Skifi28]

Not so rare anymore?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

waiting for the exposé from JaSoN! ...oh, wait..."Chuds have so much power!!"

 

[Certinty]

I'm not even exaggerating when I say the last few hours of Life Is Strange Double Exposure are some of the worst i've ever experienced on a story-heavy game.

Not hard to see why this has come.

 

[Stitch]

Not so rare anymore?

After clearing out some toxic elements at the company, Deck Nine has come back defiantly with the most overtly queer Life is Strange game yet, which is an impressively high bar to clear.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure review - the most satisfyingly speculative, but least intimate, entry into the franchise yet

Max Caulfield returns to headline a follow-up that hints at an exciting new direction for the series — but doesn't quite manage to answer all its own questions.

www.vg247.com

 

[Taur007]

MS you know what to do!

Hell their episodic games are perfect for game pass anyway

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Hell their episodic games are perfect for game pass anyway

They don't do episodic anymore, only 1 and 2 were.

 

[VanCityGamer]

I see people here mentioning woke; what is woke about this game?

 

[Taur007]

They don't do episodic anymore, only 1 and 2 were.

Looks like I been out the mix, last game I played by them was "life is strange True Colors"

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Looks like I been out the mix, last game I played by them was "life is strange True Colors"

that's 3, not episodic either.

 

[Gorilla Shark]

Shit. I was hoping we'd get some of the characters from this game in Concord as DLC.

The dream is dead.

 

[Freeman76]

Today I identify as unemployed

 

[MayauMiao]

I'm not even exaggerating when I say the last few hours of Life Is Strange Double Exposure are some of the worst i've ever experienced on a story-heavy game.

Not hard to see why this has come.

Care to tell us where it went south? Please spoil it for us.

 

[StereoVsn]

Thing is OG "Life is Strange" was a pretty progressive game, but one with good characters and good writing. For all it's awkwardness I thought it did a pretty great job at what it tries to do.

Every subsequent game after going to different studio, seems to have gone with way deep into LGBT+_%/ side without bothering much about writing and characters.

Hence the current result. A game with progressive writing can be quite good. A game that ONLY cares about those themes is almost always bad.

 

[CliffBronger]

 

[whyman]

That sucks, best LIS studio.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

Another modern western dev studio full of pronoun warriors....hmmm well their jobs identify as was/were

 

[Putonahappyface]

I enjoyed it.

 

[SHA]

Alan Wake is just superior in every possible way , I'm not knocking the ip, it's just isn't unique anymore.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Alan Wake is just superior in every possible way

 

[adamsapple]

I enjoyed it.

Won't be surprised if we're the only two people on this forum who Platinum'd this.

Can't say no to Max's continued adventures, even if it didn't live up to the first game.

(PS Bay > Bae .. Chloe is toxic AF and Max is to innocent for her).

 

[MaKTaiL]

Won't be surprised if we're the only two people on this forum who Platinum'd this.

Can't say no to Max's continued adventures, even if it didn't live up to the first game.

(PS Bay > Bae .. Chloe is toxic AF and Max is to innocent for her).

I platinum'd too.

 

[Putonahappyface]

I platinum'd too.

 

[MaKTaiL]

 

[Flabagast]

Only played the first few episodes of DE but think it's pretty good, this news saddens me. There are not that many games like Life is Strange nowadays

 

[Putonahappyface]

 

[Putonahappyface]

Only played the first few episodes of DE but think it's pretty good, this news saddens me. There are not that many games like Life is Strange nowadays

I'm really looking forward to Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The release is on February 18th.

 

[adamsapple]

I love the fact that none of us Platinum bros paid for the cat DLC

 

[MaKTaiL]

I'm really looking forward to Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The release is on February 18th.

Lost Records isn't from Deck Nine though, It's from Dontnod.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Oh/well

 

[Putonahappyface]

Lost Records isn't from Deck Nine though, It's from Dontnod.

I know. DON'T NOD are the original creators of Life is Strange, so I prefer their writing. I was just pointing out that there are still games of this genre being made.

 

[Punished Miku]

I know. DON'T NOD are the original creators of Life is Strange, so I prefer their writing. I was just pointing out that there are still games of this genre being made.

They put out a visual novel last year. Harmony. I haven't played it yet but I picked it up. Its on the backlog list.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Not an IP that needed spinning into a five- or six-game franchise. Seems like these days publishers won't abandon a once-successful IP until it's delivering layoff-level failures.

Sad part is that DONTNOD never surpassed it as a developer, so it's not like you could say 'new IP' is the answer either.

 

[Humdinger]

I enjoyed the first LiS, because it felt hella fresh at the time. But that was 10 years ago. We had a ton of those narrative-heavy games coming out then. Telltale specialized in them, but apparently Deck Nine was one of those studios, too.

I think that formula just got old. I know it did for me. I thought Before the Storm was fine, but I didn't bother with anything after that. I stayed with the Telltale games for a little longer, but I eventually grew tired of that formula, too. I'm sure that the woke/queer stuff didn't help, but I think genre fatigue was probably the main factor that sunk the studio. It specialized in a type of game that was a hit for a while, but that many people grew tired of.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Looks like they release lots of games. 4 games in 4 years. And across almost all platforms too. So they got the quantity of games and platform coverage figured out.

But if they are still in layoff mode despite only a couple hundred employees tops, the games must sell poorly.

Deck Nine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[rkofan87]

no bad.