《SCUM》开发商 Gamepires 因“市场环境”触发裁员

Published Oct 14, 2026, 11:14 AM EDT

Lauren has experience in the gaming and esports space, writing news, guides, features, reviews, lists, conducting interviews, and more.

Before joining the team at DualShockers, Lauren was a Features Writer at Adventure Gamers, a Guides Writer at Gameranx, as well as contributing as a News Writer at PCInvasion and Daily Esports. 

She also founded GameScout and holds a History degree.

The studio behind SCUM, Gamepires, has shared that they have laid off employees to reduce the size of the team, citing challenging market conditions.

SCUM launched in 2018 and quickly solidified itself as one of the biggest names in the survival games genre, exceeding a million sales in its first month. It’s known for taking place in a punishing open world, where deep character customization and your actions define the prisoner you become.

The game remained in Early Access until June 2025, after a slew of updates continued to evolve the title in unique ways. Even after the launch of version 1.0, the game updates keep on coming.

Although the statement from Croatia-based Gamepires doesn’t give too much away, it marks another disappointing milestone in game development and the video game industry as a whole.

SCUM Developer is the Latest Studio to Suffer Layoffs

In an announcement posted on the official SCUM X account, Gamepires informs players that “a difficult decision has been made to reduce the size of the Gamepires team, which means saying goodbye to colleagues who’ve helped shape SCUM and the studio.”

As listed on the Gamepires website, the studio is made up of over 65 developers. At the time of writing, it’s unknown the scale of the SCUM layoffs is and how many of those employees have been let go.

According to Gamepires, the layoffs are “necessary” in order for the studio to “adapt to challenging market conditions and support its long-term sustainability.”

In February 2026, Splash Damage acquired Gamepires from RuneScape developer Jagex. The merger was expected to put a focus on expanding its development partnerships, as well as continuing to grow the SCUM franchise and investing in new IP.

As noted by Gamepires, the staff cuts are solely “a business decision, not a judgement on the team’s work.”

The studio reaffirmed its commitment to SCUM, and development will continue in the form of new updates and content drops. It’s unknown at this stage if the staff cuts will impact update sizes or frequency, and the long-term impact that will have on the game.

According to Gamepires, the layoffs are “necessary” in order for the studio to “adapt to challenging market conditions and support its long-term sustainability.”

SCUM often releases regular patches, whether that’s making updates or rolling out new content. Most recently, Gamepires released the final Into the Wild patch, which made bigger fish put up more of a fight when fishing and placed a larger emphasis on bait and equipment choices. Fishing Quests also became available across three tiers, and an in-game leaderboard tracks the most impressive catches.

The conclusion of the Into the Wild updates saw birds return that react to what they see and hear, along with Apex Deathmatch Arena, Mutant Animal Clothing, and a paid Specialist Angler Pack.

It’s always disappointing to see layoffs, but unfortunately, they aren’t uncommon in the video games industry. Per the Gaming Layoffs website, it’s estimated that there have been 11,425 layoffs in the games industry so far in 2026, up by 151% compared to the same point in 2025. This includes 151 unique companies impacted and 33 studios closed.

The majority of those layoffs came in July 2026, when XBOX announced 3,200 roles would be cut throughout FY27. With XBOX being just three-quarters of the way through its restructuring process, it’s expected that even more major redundancies are on the cards in the not-so-distant future.