Just six months after laying off more than half of its staff and suspending work on ongoing projects, League of Geeks, developer of Armello and Solium Infernum, announced that the studio has gone into "hibernation" for the time being and may not return

League of Geeks has announced that the studio will be "hibernating" for the time being and may not return.

League of Geeks announced in December 2023 that a combination of factors, including "skyrocketing operating costs, [the] weak [Australian dollar], poor early access sales, and an unprecedented withdrawal of funding opportunities across the industry," had forced the company to lay off over 50% of its employees.February 2024 The launch of the turn-based grand strategy game "Thorium Infernum" was not affected, but the League of Geeks' plans to release a full version of its next game, "Jumplight Odyssey," were put on hold "indefinitely. League of Geeks co-founders Trent Kusters, Blake Mizzi, and Ty Carey "have decided to hibernate LoG for the time being and take an extended vacation"

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"The majority of our team has moved on to exciting new endeavors and those who remain will be taking a well deserved break for the next few months," they wrote.

"We don't know when (or if) we will bring this great beast back to life, but we are grateful for the experience we created together, the great developers who made LoG a world-class development environment, the colleagues who inspired us in the process, and, of course, the community members who believed in what we created and how we created it and supported that belief fiercely. I am incredibly proud of everything we have accomplished, both in the members of the community who have believed in what we have created and how we have created it, and in the members of the community who have supported us so fiercely.

The League of Geeks game "will remain online and supported during this period," but no further development is planned; Armello, which has been available since 2015, will "continue to cruise along as it has for the past several years" and Armello board game Production will continue uninterrupted; Solium Infernum unfortunately did not sell well enough to allow for further development or DLC production, but some bug fixes and "minor content" updates are expected.

As for Jumplight Odyssey, League of Geeks has been unable to secure investment for the game and remains "on hold." The team aims to finish Early Access within the next 12 months, but "it is unlikely that we will fully realize the originally planned v1.0 release. [Jumplight Odyssey's development update even says that they are "taking a much needed break for the next few months," which actually sounds pretty good, but this is clearly an unfortunate and undesirable situation, as League of Geeks' message states that the driving force behind the closure is " the economic situation in gaming" is clearly stated, and given the uncertainty as to whether the studio will resume activity, it seems, at least to me, that this is not a well-deserved vacation, but rather an inevitable consequence of the massive downsizing that has absolutely decimated the video game industry.

The co-founders of League of Geeks allude to that malaise in their conclusion: "It's been hard, excruciatingly hard to make video games these past few years, but being able to do it with smart, nice people, both inside and outside LoG, makes this crazy business every day It made it all worth it. For our friends in the industry, we're close by. Let's chat. <3"