Spearhead Games is laying off the majority of its dev team

Canadian indie studio Spearhead Games is laying off the majority of its development team after struggling to secure funding.

The company is also "indefinitely" halting development on Unforetold: Witchstone on March 8, 2024. That means Hotfix #7 will likely be the last update for the title.

Spearhead was founded in 2012 by Malik Boukhira and Atul Mehra. It has produced multiple games including Stories: The Path of Destinies, Tiny Brains, and Omensight.

"The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialize have put us in a difficult position," wrote the studio on X.

"Hence after careful consideration, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that we must stop further production on Unforetold: Witchstone indefinitely. [...] It further saddens us that due to these financial circumstances, we have had to make the tough decision to lay off the majority of our team."

Spearhead thanked its former employees for their "passion and hard work" and implored other studios in Montreal to consider taking them in where possible.

The studio pledged to keep fans updated on various social media channels as it attempts to carve a path forward, but noted its Discord server will be shutting down on March 8.

The game industry continues to be rocked by a surge of layoffs in 2024. Thousands of developers have lost their jobs since the turn of the year, with major companies like Microsoft, Sony, Embracer, Unity, EA and more choosing to make people redundant while championing ideals like sustainable growth and shareholder value.