Layoffs hit workers at Reflector Entertainment, makers of Unknown 9: Awakening

Workers at Reflector Entertainment, the Montreal studio that recently released third-person action adventure Unknown 9: Awakening, have been hit by layoffs, according to a number of employees who made the cuts public on social media. The studio is owned by Bandai Namco and released the game about a month ago. The exact number of people out of work isn't known, as Reflector haven't made a public statement about it. (Update: A statement from Reflector says the layoffs amount to 18% of the total workforce). Among those affected are folks working in art, design, UI, lighting, and narrative.

The layoffs were spotted by Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach, who pointed it out on Bluesky. Sure enough, a glance at LinkedIn shows several game workers announcing they are looking for new jobs. Among those I've seen are a 3D modeller, character artist, UI programmer, community manager, lighting expert, game designer, narrative designer, and a senior environment artist. That range of roles suggests the layoffs are widespread, affecting all departments.

Unknown 9 is set in an alternate history earth, in which you play a "Quaestor" with special abilities, travelling the globe to fight a shadowy secret society. Bandai Namco liked the look of it enough to buy the studio in 2020, and there was enough invested in the world to produce two novels, a scripted podcast, and a comic book. It's unclear from these layoffs whether the fictional world itself is also being retired or if Bandai Namco intend to keep it going. Reflector management claim that the layoffs are unrelated to the game's performance, nor are they the result of publisher pressure.

"Today’s announcement isn’t driven by commercial success or external pressures, but stems instead from our current reality, which is that at this time, we cannot guarantee tangible work for all of the talented individuals we employ," said General Manager Marc-André Séguin in the company statement.

For the real people affected, however, it may simply feel like more brutal cost-cutting. Bandai Namco have recently been axing jobs in their Japanese studios (via a very unpleasant method if reports by Bloomberg are accurate). Early this year they also cancelled several games due to "higher than expected" development costs.

As for Unknown 9 itself, the game seems to have sold quite poorly, and currently has an average "mixed" rating on Steam. It was arguably under-marketed for a game of its production values. We saw a 90-second teaser trailer in 2020, then heard no more about the game itself until earlier this year, when it reappeared to show off a mix of Tomb Raider adventuring, Assassin's Creed conspiracy theories, and Star Wars force powers.

Former RPS editor Katharine Castle continues to earn her reputation as a hellish prophet, after playing a preview of the game earlier this year and speaking to the studio's head of production Jean-Francois Deschamps. During which she suspected the game's final months of creation would be a challenge.

Ultimately, it's a challenge that's "really exciting" to try and meet as a studio, [Deschamps] tells us, though given everything that's happened to the industry over the last 12 months, with studios big and small having to down-size or outright shut up shop after failing to make back their development costs, I do worry how long that excitement will last when Unknown 9 launches later this summer.

If any of this sounds familiar, it's probably because something similar happened recently with multiplayer shooter Concord. After a financially disastrous launch, the studio behind the game was unceremoniously shut down by parent company Sony earlier this month. Once again, it is the workers who are most impacted when big companies get over-excited.