System Era Softworks, developer of space exploration sandbox game Astroneer, has laid off over 30 employees. The primary cause is the underperformance of its new title, StarSeeker: Astroneer Expeditions, which launched in June.
System Era Softworks announced the workforce reduction through official channels on the 23rd. The layoffs affect various roles including artists, designers, engineers, producers, writers, and QA staff, and the company stated it will provide severance packages and career transition support to them.
Joe Tirado, the developer's Marketing Director, later commented directly on Reddit to explain the context behind the layoffs. He acknowledged that StarSeeker's Early Access performance fell short of expectations, stating that despite significant investment, the team did not achieve the results originally planned.
StarSeeker is a co-op exploration game set in the Astroneer universe that launched in Early Access in June. Hundreds of thousands of players have played the game since release, but it received mixed reviews due to changes in gameplay mechanics compared to the original and its multiplayer-focused structure.
Tirado stated that while the development team will be downsized to match the current player base, development toward full launch will continue. He explained that although the original Astroneer is still operating successfully, it was difficult to cover the costs of maintaining all the additional staff hired for StarSeeker's development.
Interestingly, this restructuring will actually result in an expanded development team for the original Astroneer. The studio plans to reassign some staff back to the original game's development team and bring development work previously handled externally back in-house. StarSeeker will continue development with a reduced team while preparing for its full release. The company added that detailed specifics regarding the future development roadmap will be revealed soon, and internal discussions regarding development plans beyond 2027 have already begun.
System Era Softworks is a US developer founded in 2014 that was acquired by Devolver Digital in 2023. Its flagship title, Astroneer, has maintained steady popularity as a sandbox game combining planetary exploration, resource gathering, and base building.
