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Phoenix Labs (creators of Dauntless and Fae Farm) just laid off most of their dev team
(files.catbox.moe)
If anyone was following this fiasco, they basically launched Dauntless on Steam with a major update that completely wrecked the game and removed much of its content. Dauntless was already struggling and went in weird directions during development but this was the final nail in the coffin, and the company seems to have totally gone under.
Source: https://reddit.com/r/dauntless/comments/1ibfvaq/studio_update/
You can blame crypto bros but the original owners sold out. Once a studio has been swallowed up by a conglomerate it is only a matter of time before it turns to shit.
The owners might have had no choice though because they took a ton of venture capital funding.
I’ve realized that it’s best to just avoid any company that takes VC because they will inevitably fuck everyone over.
I wish I could get more into this, but yes there were some major missteps during the covid/post-covid "stocks are crazy high, money is free!" period. After that there just wasn't really a way to recover.
Unfortunately it's pretty hard to avoid VC money, the tech industry runs on it.
It’s hard but not impossible. You’ll make less money but have much more stability.
After multiple layoffs I started freelancing. The autonomy and multiple streams of income has been great for my mental health.
I think the issue is more that VC's prioritize draining money out of what they acquire instead of continuing with what works for longer term gains.