Outriders & Bulletstorm Developer People Can Fly Hit by Another Round of Layoffs

People Can Fly, the Poland-based studio behind titles like Outriders and Bulletstorm, has been hit by layoffs for the second time this year. This time, over 120 employees lost their jobs due to "external market pressures" in the last month of 2024 with adjustments of projects and restructuring of the teams. 

CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski issued a statement regarding the affected projects. "Today, we made a very difficult decision to reduce our self-publishing strategy by suspending Project Victoria, scaling down our team on Project Bifrost, and restructuring some of our supporting teams at People Can Fly." As a result, the studio will be "suspending or parting ways with more than 120 talented Aviators".

This year has been unfriendly to People Can Fly. Back in January, the studio reportedly let go of over 30 developers "due to budget limitations and shrinking scope." All of the affected staff were on Project Gemini, a project developed in the work-for-hire model with Square Enix and scheduled to be released in 2026. 

The studio has offered very limited information regarding the progress of Project Gemini. However, in a report released in June this year, the company stated that "the development of Project Gemini will not be continued by the Group on the current commercial terms." As a result, the studio’s future revenue from this project will only cover the direct development costs. 

April saw the studio’s AAA co-op action-adventure project, Project Dagger, get canceled because of an "unsatisfactory" assessment of its commercial potential. Project Dagger was initially planned to be released by Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive, but the partnership was terminated in 2022.