Just days after Squid Shock Studios Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus On July 17, publisher Humble Games announced on July 23 that it would lay off 36 staff members, hampering the game’s critical launch window. Humble Games, which also published acclaimed indie games such as Coral Island, Defeat the SpireAnd Unpackingdescribed the changes as restructuring in official statements, but laid-off staffers said on social media and LinkedIn that there are no employees left. The name Humble Games is transferred to external consultancy firm The Powell Groupreported Aftermath. The uproar left some developers wondering about the impact on their games — and specifically, the impact on the process of updating their games on consoles.
Developer Stairway Games posted a message on its X account on July 25, two days after the announcement of Humble Games’ restructuring: that it offers Nintendo Switch players the chance to switch to the Steam version of his popular life sim, Coral Islandwithout paying for the game again. Stairway Games said in its post that it is concerned about its ability to port its game to Nintendo Switch, something that was promised to the Kickstarter backerswithout any help from Humble Games. However, Humble Games representative Michael Brown told Polygon that “nothing has changed and no developers have had to change their port plans; every project is moving forward.”
Image: Squid Shock/Humble Games
When asked why studios have publicly stated that they cannot update console ports, Brown said, “Some studios are still in the process of syncing with their new contacts and all of their concerns are currently being addressed and any issues will be resolved as quickly as possible.”
For developers, the process can’t go fast enough. “For example, we have an upcoming hotfix for the 1.1 update that’s coming soon to Steam,” the Stairway post reads. “We have no idea how to push this update to other platformers, as on console platforms we don’t have backend permissions to push updates. We only have access to the Steam backend.”
Days later, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus developer Squid Shock Studios echoed Stairway Games’ message: “(The restructuring) was a critical blow to our post-launch support.” Like Stairway Games, Squid Shock Studios said it has few options to update or hotfix its new title on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Four studios confirmed to Polygon that they are still unclear about the process for updating their games on the console, more than a week after Humble Games’ announcement. Some studios are taking immediate, independent action: Stairway Games said it is in contact with a lawyer, while Squid Shock Studios set up a Patreon. Amidst the confusion, other developers who publish with Humble Games stand in solidarity. TemTem Developer Crema posted about the difficulties Squid Shock is facing: “This has led to a lot of uncertainty for developers working with their brand. Of all these developers, there is one who has been hit the hardest: @SquidShock, who lost marketing and visibility the week of their launch, overshadowing a moment that should have been celebrated. If you like what you see, support them, they deserve it. We give them and the rest of the games affected by this sudden event our warmest hug.”
Brent Kobayashi, co-founder of Meowza Games (Mineko Night Market), told Polygon that the game’s porting plans are “in limbo” because Meowza Games doesn’t have permission for the console backend. “We also released a build shortly before the layoffs that reintroduced some old bugs,” he said. “Humble acted as a middleman and facilitated the contracts with the porters, so right now we don’t have any contact with the porting team or publisher to address this for the time being. We are waiting to hear from a representative, but so far we haven’t heard back from them. Until we understand what kind of plan/relationship we expect to have with them going forward, we can’t say with certainty what the status of ports will be in the near future.”
Another person close to Humble Games, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal over a nondisclosure agreement, said Squid Shock Studios felt “marooned and abandoned” by Humble management after reaching out for clarification via internal Slack and only receiving parting words from fired staff in response. Overnight, they said, communication about console ports disappeared. Console players are now several patches behind Windows PC players using Steam – and console users are indeed experiencing bugs. Communication is starting to improve, according to the anonymous source – introductions to new contacts at Powell Group have begun – but the pipeline for console ports was still an issue at the time of writing, they said.
“The only explanation I’ve been given is that The Powell Group was brought in to find a buyer for Humble Games,” another developer with a game published by Humble Bundle, who also wished to remain anonymous, told Polygon. “When that fell through, they were tasked with managing the catalog just enough to fulfill contractual obligations and maintain remaining revenue streams. Given this, it’s hard to be optimistic that even the most well-intentioned team members will have the resources necessary to do their jobs effectively.”
Polygon has reached out to Humble Games for clarification regarding the intended sale and The Powell Group’s involvement with Humble Games’ catalog.