When several companies left the Xbox camp to go independent early July 2026, the first thing out of my mouth was, “It doesn’t mean a thing if these studios go independent if they can’t get the money needed to stay afloat.” I know it was either that or potentially get shut down, but that wasn’t an absolute.
And I hate being right, but here we go. Today, Tim Schafer, the founder of Double Fine Productions took to social media and revealed that the company has let go of 23 members of its team. And when you think about it, that is a lot of people, especially for a studio the size of Double Fine.
It goes without saying that Double Fine is doing everything it can to keep the studio from closing, but losing 23 people from a team this size hurts. Double Fine has not revealed exactly how many people currently work at the studio. However, an NLRB filing from May listed 42 regular full-time and part-time employees, although that number did not include supervisors and several other positions.
So, no, we cannot say Double Fine just lost more than half of its entire workforce. But regardless...
