Schell Games, the Pittsburgh studio behind the I Expect You To Die series and Among Us VR, has laid off around 40% of its staff, its second round of job cuts this year.
The studio confirmed the layoffs in a LinkedIn post on October 31st. "We're very sad to say that due to this challenging time in the game industry, Schell Games has found it necessary to lay off a significant number of employees in order to ensure a sustainable future for our studio," it wrote. "While this will enable us to stay stable moving forward, it is incredibly painful as we are losing some fantastic talent."
The post did not give a number. Schell Games has since confirmed that 49 employees were let go in cuts across the company, and CEO Jesse Schell described the reduction as "about 40% of the studio."
Who was affected
The LinkedIn post listed the roles that were cut and asked other companies to get in touch if they are hiring. They include Unity and Unreal engineers, game artists, game designers, sound designers, producers, game marketers, IT support specialists, educational game researchers, quality assurance (QA) specialists and product managers. The studio said it was "eager to help these world-class developers find new homes" and pointed recruiters to its careers email address.
Schell Games' second cut this year
The latest round follows layoffs in August, when Schell Games cut about 10% of its staff. That was the first time the studio had let people go since it was founded in 2002. Schell said at the time that about 125 staff remained, which puts the studio at roughly 76 people after the new cuts. The company's own About page still lists more than 150 team members.
Schell Games works both on its own games and as a work-for-hire studio for outside clients. Its next release is Dragon Grove, a free-to-play mixed reality puzzle game announced at Meta Connect 2026 for Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S and Meta VR Glasses. According to the studio's announcement, it will launch with more than 200 levels in spring 2027. The studio has not said whether the layoffs affect that project.
