Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs is firing "many" employees and canceling projects under development as part of a massive restructuring plan aimed at creating a "path to a strong future," according to leadership.

"We are reorganizing Phoenix Labs to serve their community, focusing on best-in-class live service titles, Dauntless and Fae Farm," the studio said in a message posted to LinkedIn. "Unfortunately, this means canceling work on all other projects in the studio, which immediately affects many colleagues. We are giving notice to everyone whose role is affected.

"This restructuring is not easy and is a last resort for Phoenix Labs to survive and thrive in the long term."

Dauntless made a good first impression: When we got it in 2017, we called it "the PC monster Hunter game we all waited for."But the real Monster Hunter: It ran into problems not long after when the world was announced for PC. There's a lot to Dauntless, but Senior editor Wes Fenlon said in 2019 that "Monster Hunter: The World is simply a deeper, bigger, richer game."It's also on Steam, but Dauntless on Pc is limited to the Epic Games Store.

Fae Farm, launched in 2023, is running on Steam, but its number of players is anemic.We liked it very much, but after the average number of concurrent players slightly exceeded 1 2,000 in the first months of its release on Steam, since 2024/1, the average number of concurrent players has not exceeded 200. 

Kris Morness, Principal engineer at Phoenix Labs, said on LinkedIn that Phoenix Labs was acquired by blockchain company Forte in 2023 and that the restructuring decision came from Forte."Forte has canceled all projects under development, including the game it was announcing in 1 month."

Former UX lead Noah Watkins, one of the employees being fired, echoed that statement, saying, "The most frustrating part is how close we were to announcing a new game that many have spent more than 5 years on.

It is not known how many employees are currently being released, but Mornez said the number is "over 200.""I reached out to Phoenix Labs and Forte for comment.