LogInFishlabs had several promising ideas in the works.
Fishlabs | Chorus
Embracer is known for its massive layoffs nowadays, which close games and whole studios, and Fishlabs, the developer behind Chorus and Galaxy on Fire, couldn't avoid their effects.
Fishlabs was acquired by Koch Media, now Plaion, Embracer's subsidiary, in 2013, becoming one of its many "children". A decade later, Fishlabs had two in-house projects, according to Rock Paper Shotgun's sources – former developers at the studio.
The team of Project White worked on games based on Embracer-owned IPs, while Project Black was an original game, eventually focused on a brother and sister exploring a planet hit by a strange corruption.
"The sister has completely succumbed to this malady, while the brother has a corrupted arm. The affliction was to be a source of power, however, in that the characters could use their relationship with the corruption to alter the terrain by, for example, generating or manipulating surfaces to jump on," described Rock Paper Shotgun.
Overcoming multiple hardships and lack of direction, it was an original project that received €5.5 million in public funding. However, after being reviewed by Embracer's other studios, the project was canceled, and 10% of Fishlabs were laid off.
During that time, another idea was born that would not make it: a new Red Faction game. Originally developed by Volition, shut down by Embracer at the end of August last year, the game would benefit from a sequel, especially since Fishlabs had experience in science fiction.
Some developers had mixed feelings about pitching a Red Faction title so soon after its creator was closed down, but it was promising in both the idea and the business side: "Red Faction, after all, began life as a story of working people fighting corporate injustice." This, unfortunately, didn't help.
The game was supposed to be set 100 years after Guerrilla on a more terraformed Martian map, led by a female protagonist involved in an underground workers' revolution. It would have been an immersive experience with dynamic dialogues.
"We were trying to look at what did Guerrilla do right, what did Armageddon do wrong, and how can we marry the two and continue on with it," one source explained.
Plaion's reaction to the pitch was positive. However, there was a vote in November, and the Red Faction game was canceled. What's worse, Fishlabs was told to lay off almost everyone not working on an active project. At a surprise meeting, around 50 people were laid off. "You could see that both the company chiefs had been crying a lot, and there was a representative from Plaion there as well," one source recalled the meeting. Both the studio development director Tobias Severin and managing director Stefan Beier declared they would step down.
Fishlabs is described by its former employees as a studio with a transparent and supportive working culture, at least it was before its structure was changed so much. While not perfect, the leadership was said to be ready to fight for its workers and managed to get a better severance deal for some of them.
Overall, Fishlabs' fired employees didn't have much communication with Embracer or its studios, although no one seemed to complain before the whole restructuring began.
The ex-developers agree that the abundance of layoffs is linked to the companies overhiring (and overbuying) during the COVID gaming boom, investing in Web3, NFTs, the metaverse, and generative AI. Of course, the dark side of business is likely present as well:
"We make a shitload of money, but it doesn't go back into the games," one person said. "It goes into a lot of now very wealthy peoples' pockets, and the people who actually make the games kind of scrape by, most of the time."
Whether or not it's true, Embracer does plan to use more AI. I doubt it will produce better games than what Fishlabs could have done, but we'll have to wait and see.
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