Art of Rally developer Funselektor has made some employees redundant

Absolute Drift and Art of Rally developer Funselektor has made a small number of layoffs.

The studio broke the news on X and explained that three members of staff based in Australia were impacted by the cuts.

"Unfortunately we've had to make some positions redundant at Funselektor. We'd like to help them in their employment hunt in the video game sector, so we recommend these awesome Australians," wrote the studio.

"We vouch for them as being amazing and skilled team members that brought quality into our games. They're looking for new positions in Development, Engineering and Production."

Funselektor shared more information about those affected to help them find new roles elsewhere.

Game Developer has reached out to Funselektor to learn more about the cuts.

Update (01/17/24): Funselektor founder Dune Casu has shared more information about the layoffs. In an email to Game Developer, Casu explained the studio was perhaps "too ambitious" when pitching its next project internally, leaving it with no concrete plans and a lack of direction. 

Ambitious internal projects

"Basically we've spent about three years updating our breadwinner title Art of Rally which has a high maintenance cost as it's on many PC and Console platforms. And at the same time we may have been too ambitious with our internal projects and are now in the position where there is no solidified next game for the studio," said Casu. "Unfortunately that meant with a capable team but no direction we'd be in a bad position financially, so I had to make the hard decision to lay off staff." 

As it stands, Funselektor is focused on ensuring Art of Rally is in a "good place" development-wise so it can work on creating a new title. Casu said the studio currently has some early prototypes that could be viable, and is also working to publish an unannounced title that had previously been on hiatus due to being co-developed alongside an external studio.