We’ve seen some huge survival game success stories this year – even some that were released with a healthy amount of jank and performance issues like Palworld. However, buried beneath the high-fliers is Nightingale – a gorgeous survival experience that has undergone some radical changes since its February launch, but one that is still struggling to attract players. As a result of the game’s poor performance, developer Inflexion Games has confirmed that it is laying off dozens of staff. That said, it’s still committed to working on Nightingale, which still remains in early access.
While its initial technical issues gave it an incredibly steep mountain to climb, the Nightingale you see today is a far cry from the one that launched earlier in the year. At a surface level, you can see the improvement – the survival game released to mixed reviews, but if you look at its Steam user reviews for the last 30 days, it boasts a ‘very positive’ 82% rating. This has been down to not only plenty of fixes for those early bugs and tech problems, but huge overhauls to key elements like base building and even an entire rework of its campaign.
A lot of work has gone into improving Nightingale, but sadly, its Steam player count is struggling. Although its massive Realms Rebuilt update in September saw it rise from just a couple of hundred peak concurrent players to over 6,000, this has gradually tapered off. While there is still a moderate community of players still logging in and playing the game, it’s not enough to offset the costs.
“Although we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished with Nightingale to date – as well as the enthusiasm and support from our community – the Early Access release hasn’t been commercially successful enough to continue development at our studio’s previous size,” says Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn in a statement. “As a result, we’re undergoing a restructuring process in Canada, and we will also be closing our UK office.”
While Inflexion doesn’t say exactly how many devs are being laid off, a statement issued to PC Gamer confirms that it is in the “dozens.”
In response to the announcement, a fan asks if Nightingale itself will survive. The Nightingale X account replies: “Nightingale Early Access development will continue. We’ll share news on forthcoming updates soon.”
Just a few weeks back, the Nightingale team spoke to Ken with plenty of optimism about how it was going to elevate its novel, striking Victorian fantasy style and what was set to come after Realms Rebuilt. “We’re thinking about new stories, new characters, new realms and experiences – hopefully soon. We’re full steam ahead on our side,” the team said in an interview.
With what seems to be a large swathe of developers leaving Inflexion, this is bound to have an affect on the pace of Nightingale’s redemption arc and journey towards a full release, and that’s gutting, because its premise and setting makes it a unique-feeling survival experience. What’s even more gutting, of course, is that yet another group of game devs are losing their jobs.
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