The developer of new free-to-play shooter Spectre Divide just laid off 13 employees, says it was necessary 'to support Spectre and its community for the long term'

Spectre Divide promo image - close-up of a man in a mohawk staring down the sights of a rifle

(Image credit: Mountaintop Studios)

Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop Studios has confirmed the layoff of 13 employees, saying the move was necessary to ensure the long-term future of the game and its community.

"To make sure we're set up to support Spectre and its community for the long term, we made the very difficult decision to reduce 13 full-time roles at the studio," Mountaintop co-founder and CEO Nate Mitchell said in a statement first reported by Polygon's Nicole Carpenter. "We can’t thank these team members enough for their hard work and dedication to Spectre these past few years."

A Mountaintop representative confirmed the statement in an email to PC Gamer. The representative added that following the layoffs, the studio has "more than 70 full-time folks working on making the game better with every update."

Spectre Divide, a free-to-play 3v3 tactical shooter where each player controls two characters, only launched a few weeks ago, on September 3. Staff writer and digital gunfight enthusiast Morgan Park liked it quite a bit, saying after a pre-release preview session that he "can't stop thinking about when I'll get to play it next." The actual launch hit a bit of a bump with some eye-popping gun skin prices (which were lowered, slightly, in short order), and along with the traditional launch-day server woes that helped spark a flood of negative reviews on Steam that are still reflected in the "mixed" user rating.

On the other hand, Spectre Divide seems to be doing reasonably well for itself, with concurrent player counts consistently holding in the mid-thousands. That's not a runaway hit but it's something to start with, at least—the $40 Concord attracted so few players that it only lasted a couple weeks.

Unfortunately, these cuts are just the latest in a game industry decimation that's been underway since the beginning of 2023: On top of the Mountaintop layoffs, September has seen people put out of work at Airship Syndicate, Evening Star, Microsoft, Midnight Society, Lost Boys Interactive, Ballistic Moon, and Rocksteady. And there's still a week to go.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.