Gears Of War: E-Day devs People Can Fly cancel two game projects after falling out with unnamed publisher

Gears Of War: E-Day and Outriders developers People Can Fly are cancelling two video game projects and laying people off due to "a lack of communication" from one game's publisher, and "a lack of prospects for securing organizational resources and funds" for the other.

The projects in question were codenamed Gemini and Bifrost. It's not clear what either of them involved. People Can Fly haven't named the aforementioned publisher, but Square Enix were listed as Gemini's publishers back in January 2023. Here's a gristly slab of industryspeak from CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski, via LinkedIn.

"The suspension of the Gemini project is a consequence of the fact that the Publisher has not presented us with a draft of the subsequent content rider to the Publishing Agreement covering the terms and conditions of further milestones on project Gemini and the lack of communication from the Publisher as to its willingness to continue or terminate the Gemini project."

To rephrase the above in language my puny microchip-deficient brain can withstand, Wojciechowski is essentially saying that the publishers have stopped talking and left the developers in doubt about whether they want to publish the game at all. For context, a rider is an addition or amendment to a primary contract. As for "further milestones", this presumably refers to an agreement on what the publishers would pay People Can Fly in return for reaching certain stages in the game's development.

As for Bifrost, this "was suspended due to the above and the analysis of the Group's cash flow, which showed a lack of prospects for securing organizational resources and funds necessary to continue the production and release of this project," Wojciechowski continues.

"As a result, we have to significantly regroup as a studio and scale down our teams, which hurts the most."

This is the latest in a string of cancellations and layoffs from People Can Fly. In January last year, they dismissed 30 people who were working on Gemini. In April 2024, they washed their hands of Project Dagger, a Take-Two Interactive joint. And in December 2024, they laid off over 120 people and shelved another game. All this followed a period of expansion that saw the studio grow to over 600 people and seven projects as of July 2023.

Gears Of War: E-Day (aka Project Maverick) is a return to roots, of sorts - back in 2011-2013, People Can Fly collaborated with original Gears devs Epic on Gears Of War: Judgment, though how much of the Judgment team remains at PCF is anybody's guess. As Coalition studio head Mike Crump commented back at announcement, "we’re pleased to be partnering with the talented folks at People Can Fly who have been a part of our franchise’s legacy for so long.”

While the scale of the layoffs is undetermined, a number of former Bifrost and Gemini contributors have spoken publicly about their time with People Can Fly, praising the departing staffers on LinkedIn.

"Although I was only part of Project Bifrost for two short weeks before being laid off last Dec, I could clearly see how talented, passionate, and capable the team was," writes concept artist Lipan Liu. "It was a group filled with amazing developers, and the project itself had so much potential. It's hard to believe it ended this way."

Writer and designer James B Jones adds that "though my time at PCF was relatively brief, the folks I worked with on Project Gemini were S-tier talent and even better people." Best of luck to all affected.