Trion Worlds has been acquired by Gamigo and the company has therefore released most of its employees. The exact number of released employees is not officially available at the moment but it is estimates suggest it to be around 87 per cent.
Trion Worlds were initially reluctant to provide transparency about the layoffs but Gamasutra did some poking and it yielded results that are quite franky - terrifying. Apparently there are only 25 employees left, which immediatelly sparks the memories of Telltale Games, where a similar number of employees were initially spared in order to wrap things up.
This doesn't seem to be the case with Trion Worlds though, as the studio will not shut down, as it was acquired by Gamigo. While it's a consolation, it's not exactly a big one, as Gamasutra stated that Trion employed around 200 people, which means about 87,5 per cent employees were laid off.
The company declined to offer an official statement regarding the layoffs, issuing a generic PR response stating that "many of the names and faces you've come to know in [Trion's] studios will remain on through this transition, others will not be making the journey". They also stated they are grateful for the work and contribution of the laid off employees.
Gamasutra reported that it's actually a vast majority of the employees being let go, based on statements from an anonymous source. The remaining developers at Redwood City, CA and Austin, TX have still been affected by the layoffs.
Defiance 2050's unsucessful release did seem a bit of a rushed project that served as a straw to grasp at, much like Radical Heights was for Boss Key Productions, but now it is official.
Trion Worlds
Many expected this release to be a new game in the Defiance universe, but it just turned out to be the same old Defiance, with upgraded graphics and character progression. Other than that, it was literally the same game, with the same story and missions.
