Unknown 9: Awakening got a lot of buzz before its release, but then it seemed that there was no news or rumblings about it after the game was released. There was just silence. As a result of the game not performing to Reflector Entertainment's expectations, the company has now been hit with layoffs. Unknown 9: Awakening was the first game that was going to be in a series of action-adventure games with an expansive multimedia universe surrounding it. This includes a podcast audio drama, novels, and even comic books. Whether this will happen now is uncertain. It's been posted on the official Reflector Entertainment website that 18% of the workforce has been laid off. However, the post announcing this has now been deleted from the Reflector website.
It's claimed that the layoffs are due to the studio entering a new phase of development, and those who were laid off were not "assigned to roles that our active projects require." To support those impacted by the layoffs, the company has said that they will be supporting them by providing severance packages, "as well as access to medical, emotional, and career planning support."
Considering we aren't out of the first month of the year yet, there have already been a stark number of layoffs, which is what everyone was hoping to see less of this year. There have been approximately 295 people laid off in the gaming industry this year thus far, according to the gaming layoffs website that tracks every known instance of layoffs.
At the moment it's not certain what areas of the company were impacted by the layoffs, but it's reported that it was employees from QA, marketing, art, and narrative. This includes employees like Narrative and Game Designer Anna Karina Bermudez as well as Brand Manager Manou Deneuvel, who have posted on LinkedIn about their new search for employment.
Chief Content Officer Herve Hoerdt has also confirmed on LinkedIn that they have canceled a new project that was in the conceptualization phase. It's been said that they scrapped the project as it wouldn't be sustainable for the future of the studio, which has led to redundancies.
Hoerdt also goes on to state that the game's cancelation comes off the back of the "failure" of the company's "ambitious and courageous first project," which was Unknown 9: Awakening. While the specific numbers haven't been stated, he says that the game's sales performance "didn't come near the company expectations."
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