Things are not all rosy in the land of Pixar-looking MOBA-likes. Motiga, those behind Xbox One and PC focused free to play third-person entry Gigantic, have announced the financial situation of the company has forced them to let go a majority of their staff to stay afloat while they try to secure additional funding. They say talks are going well and they think they will be able to rehire everyone soon, but for the time being the ongoing closed beta will be ran with a skeleton crew as they continue negotiations.
Gigantic entered closed beta last year and has been running NDA-less for the past week or so. It’s been in development for a long time, and it looks like that’s finally caught up to Motiga. In their statement, they say that “Our financial situation is such that we are unable to continue supporting the entirety of the studio at this time. Though we are in active and promising discussions with a number of potential investors, the timing for those negotiations extends beyond the resources we have to maintain the staffing required to continue development on Gigantic.”
This would suggest that the game itself will be going under as well if they don’t successfully complete these negotiations. It’s an odd situation, as the Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusivity suggested that Microsoft had funded development, but it seems like that has stalled, cancelled or been otherwise changed.
They say they don’t have any specific information regarding their next steps, or potential due dates, but presumably something will need to happen soon. They laid out their future plans thusly:
“Our goal at this time is to work aggressively to identify the resources we need to rehire the members of the Motiga family that were laid off today, securing our financial future so that the Gigantic community can continue to work with us to develop this title, and ultimately bring the complete Gigantic experience to the marketplace.”
Hopefully they land on their feet, but it’s an extremely competitive market they’re in, both in terms of quantity of games (whether you include all the traditional MOBAs or not, there are plenty now using the closer-camera approach) and quality. Best wishes to everyone affected.