Double Fine Lays Off 23 Employees - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 28 July 2026 / 1,844 Views
Double Fine Productions, the studio that recently regained its independence after years of being a first-party Xbox studio, announced it is laying off 23 employees. The studio had around 90 employees before the layoffs.
"Today, Double Fine Productions let go of 23 members of our staff," said Double Fine founder Tim Schafer.
"As a small, tightly-knit team, these actions are not taken lightly. Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action. Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain.
"The people we are losing were all important. They all made an impact on our games and culture, and they will be missed.
"We are committed to supporting each affected person as best as we can, and we thank them for their hard work and commitment to the creative spirit we cherish here at Double Fine."
Double Fine most recently released Kiln in April 2026 and Keeper in October 2025.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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"Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain"
If all Xbox's studios thought this way they wouldn't have had to spin anyone off lol
All the best, hopefully were getting Psychonauts 3!!
Still not as many layoffs as they would have had under Microslop.
Wht can't they put the whole team together and make psychonauts 3..
I'm guessing they don't have enough money to do so, and they don't think they can get enough money in time either. They probably would do exactly that if they thought they could avoid the layoffs that way.
They were only able to finish Psychonauts 2 because Microsoft bought them.
You can check Double Fine psychonauts 2 journey on youtube is very long but also shows how it took a long time and a lot of stress to make Psychonauts 2.
cause it aint free or cheap to do so....
Sad, but not unexpected news. i wish them good luck.
