Life is Strange: True Colors developer Deck Nine is laying off 20% of its staff due to ‘worsening market conditions’

Life is Strange: True Colors
(Image credit: TechRadar)

Deck Nine Games has confirmed that it’s laying off 20 percent of its staff as a result of being affected by “the games industry’s worsening market conditions.”

In a statement posted to Twitter / X yesterday (February 27), the studio said that the decision to lay off staff was “difficult” and that those affected are “amazing, talented and awesome developers.” It encouraged other companies to hire them if possible. 

“Like many others in the games industry right now, Deck Nine has been affected by the games industry’s worsening market conditions. Today we made the difficult decision to lay off 20 percent of our staff,” the statement reads. 

“These people are amazing, talented and awesome developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly. Please hire these people if you can, they’re amazing.”

At the time of writing, it’s not clear how many people have been affected by the layoffs, nor has Deck Nine outlined which roles at the studio have been impacted.

Deck Nine Games developed 2021’s Life is Strange: True Colors, as well as Life is Strange: Before the Storm and the series’ Remastered Collection. It also co-developed the episodic adventure game The Expanse: A Telltale Series alongside Telltale Games. 

Sadly, Deck Nine Games is far from the only studio to have made staff cuts recently. Yesterday, it was also confirmed that PlayStation is cutting around 900 jobs worldwide along with the closure of its London Studio, and Den of Wolves developer 10 Chambers revealed that it’s disbanded five roles as part of changes it believes will “benefit the long-term development” of its upcoming co-op heist game. 

Looking for some new games to play? You can find some top recommendations on our roundups of the best PC games, best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.