Despite making significant changes to survival game Nightingale, developer Inflexion Games says it hasn't been 'commercially successful enough' to avoid 'dozens' of layoffs

Nightingale screenshot - first-person view of a hand conjuring magic and a warhammer, facing a humanoid NPC

(Image credit: Inflexion Games)

After a troubled launch and months of low and declining player counts, Nightingale developer Inflexion Games has announced that it is laying off employees and closing its UK studio.

"The past few weeks here at Inflexion Games have been incredibly challenging, and no words can adequately express the sadness we feel," CEO Aaryn Flynn wrote in a message posted on X. "Like many other studios over the past few years, we have been hit by the stark realities of the industry, and after exploring every possible option, we've had to make the difficult decision to let go of some of our remarkable and talented team members.

"Although we're proud of what we've accomplished with Nightingale to date—as well as the enthusiasm and support from our community—the early access release hasn't been commercially successful enough to continue development at our studio's previous size. As a result, we're undergoing a restructuring process in Canada, and we will also be closing our UK office."

"The past few weeks here at Inflexion Games have been incredibly challenging, and no words can adequately express the sadness we feel. Like many other studios over the past few years, we have been hit by the stark realities of the industry, and after exploring every possible option, we've had to make the difficult decision to let go of some of our remarkable and talented team members. Although we're proud of what we've accomplished with Nightingale to date—as well as the enthusiasm and support from our community—the early access release hasn't been commercially successful enough to continue development at our studio's previous size. As a result, we're undergoing a restructuring process in Canada, and we will also be closing our UK office." — (Image credit: Inflexion Games)

Flynn didn't say how many employees were put out of work, but it sounds like the cuts were deep. Lead art tools programmer Guillaume Leroy said in a post on LinkedIn that "like most of the employees of Inflexion Games, I am no longer part of the studio." Others, including lead game tools programmer Theo K., software engineer Loic Leinot, and narrative editor Sharayah Piercey, said in their own posts that "many" people have been let go. Inflexion confirmed with PC Gamer that "dozens" of employees were affected by the layoffs.

I thought Nightingale's 'Mary Poppins-meets-Stargate' approach to open-world survival looked genuinely interesting, but it ran headlong into server problems at launch, which dragged its user rating down to a less-than-appealing "mixed" on Steam. Despite previously insisting that its vision for the game's interconnected realms, Inflexion quickly changed course and went to work on an offline mode, which eventually went live in May. It was well received but didn't have any real impact on player numbers; the release of the Realms Rebuilt update in September did see a notable uptick in concurrent players, but that tailed off fairly quickly too.

Former senior audio designer Tom Avis seemed to imply in a LinkedIn message that these layoffs signalled the end of Nightingale, writing, "It's painful that we couldn't see the game through to its final form, but I hope players continue to enjoy the early access version, as there's a lot we should be proud of." In a reply tweet, however, Inflexion said development will continue, and that news on future updates will be shared soon.

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.