{"id":86778,"date":"2026-07-29T10:33:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=86778"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:36:29","slug":"double-fine-cuts-25-of-staff-after-separating-from-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=86778","title":{"rendered":"Double Fine Cuts 25% Of Staff After Separating From Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After regaining its independence from Microsoft, the veteran, esteemed game developer Double Fine has enacted a sweeping round of layoffs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Studio head Tim Schafer <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/doublefine.com\/post\/3mrq3vfqkf22s\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/doublefine.com\/post\/3mrq3vfqkf22s\">said<\/a> the San Francisco-based studio laid off 23 people this week, which, according to reporter Jason Schreier, amounted to <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/jasonschreier.bsky.social\/post\/3mrq3scnjq22j\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/jasonschreier.bsky.social\/post\/3mrq3scnjq22j\">about 25%<\/a> of the developer&#8217;s total headcount. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;As a small, tightly knit team, these actions are not taken lightly,&#8221; Schafer said. &#8220;Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful move.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that the cuts were directly related to Double Fine regaining its independence from Microsoft. Schafer said Double Fine needed to scale down to become a &#8220;size that we can sustain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every affected staffer will be supported &#8220;as best we can,&#8221; Schafer said. &#8220;We thank them for their hard work and commitment to the creative spirit we cherish here at Double Fine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 2000, Double Fine was an independent studio until Microsoft bought the company in 2019. Schafer <a href=\"https:\/\/gameinformer.com\/2019\/06\/23\/tim-schafer-on-microsoft-acquisition-and-the-future-of-double-fine\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/gameinformer.com\/2019\/06\/23\/tim-schafer-on-microsoft-acquisition-and-the-future-of-double-fine\">told Game Informer in 2019<\/a> that he was &#8220;very concerned&#8221; about selling to Microsoft due to a fear that the company might not be able to retain its &#8220;culture and identity&#8221; under a behemoth like Microsoft. However, Schafer said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After regaining its independence from Microsoft, the veteran, esteemed game developer Double Fine has enacted a sweeping round of layoffs. Studio head Tim Schafer said the San Francisco-based studio laid off 23 people this week, which, according to reporter Jason Schreier, amounted to about 25% of the developer&#8217;s total headcount. &#8220;As a small, tightly knit&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":86780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86781,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86778\/revisions\/86781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}