GreedFall II and Steelrising developer Spiders has apparently become the latest studio to be swept up in the ongoing wave of industry layoffs.
According to a LinkedIn post by lead animator Erwan Perrin (spotted by ResetEra user Maxime), Spiders will soon "proceed [with] a layoff plan" which will affect "most of the animation and rig team" at the studio. That's the team that creates character animations and frameworks.
It's not clear exactly how many employees will be hit by the layoffs, but it's not a great sign for Spiders if "most" of an entire team at the studio is being let go.
If you're not familiar with Spiders, it's a French studio responsible for developing games like the aforementioned GreedFall II and Steelrising, as well as The Technomancer, Bound by Flame, and other Eurojank-style RPG-adjacent titles.
In many ways, the studio is similar to Gothic and Elex developer Piranha Bytes, which should probably come as more cause for alarm; that studio, which was based in Germany, was shut down in 2024 by parent company THQ Nordic.
Given that GreedFall II is currently in Early Access, it's not entirely clear what these Spiders layoffs mean for the future of the game....
