Harmony sport director Ryan Ellis has reportedly stepped down after the beleaguered 5v5 shooter was yanked offline amid apparently disastrous gross sales, with employees at developer Firewalk Studios stated to be in limbo whereas they await Sony’s resolution on the way forward for the sport.
Harmony was faraway from sale earlier this month, simply two weeks after its launch on PS5 and PC, with Sony providing full refunds to gamers. In a press release launched on the time, Ellis wrote, “Whereas many qualities of the expertise resonated with gamers, we additionally recognise that different facets of the sport and our preliminary launch did not land the way in which we might supposed.”
Ellis added that Firewalk would “discover choices” and “decide the very best path forward” as soon as the sport was offline, however no additional statements have been issued since then. In keeping with Kotaku, nevertheless, employees at Firewalk have remained “in limbo” within the two weeks following Harmony’s shutdown as they watch for a choice on each the sport and the studio’s future.
Three sources informed Kotaku workers are “pessimistic” Harmony will return, with some having already been requested to discover pitches the studio may work on subsequent. Some are stated to imagine mass layoffs are on the playing cards for the Sony-owned Firewalk – which employs round 150-170 folks – given the studio is reportedly probably the most costly beneath PlayStation’s watch on a per-head foundation.
Kotaku says there’s additionally hypothesis amongst employees that Sony might determine to set Firewalk to work co-developing one in every of its many different first-party tasks – though “a couple of” workers have reportedly already preemptively exited the studio, whereas others are ready to see what a possible severance bundle might seem like earlier than making a choice.
As for Ellis – who beforehand served as inventive director on Future 2 – he reportedly informed employees final week he can be stepping down from his present position as sport director and shifting right into a assist position. “Ryan deeply believed in that mission and bringing gamers collectively by the enjoyment in it,” one former developer informed Kotaku. “No matter there being issues that might have been carried out in another way all through growth…he is human, and filled with coronary heart.”
Firewalk was acquired by Sony final 12 months, as a part of a large live-service push beneath former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan. The response to Harmony, Firewalk’s debut sport, was lukewarm at finest, with business analysts estimating it bought much less that 25,000 copies throughout PS5 and PC.
