The CEO of Monument Valley developer Ustwo Games, Maria Sayans, has outlined the studio needs to lower development costs, and to do so it will rely on contractors in the future rather than hiring full-time staff. Sayans explained the plan in an interview with Game Developer at London Games Fest.

In the wake of Netflix dropping the Monument Valley games from its service and deals with major companies drying up, Ustwo has a plan to focus on building “meaningful single player experiences” for PC and consoles. It’s a plan already in motion, with Ustwo recently porting several of its games to platforms like Steam and Switch without publisher support.

However, Sayans explained that they’ve subsequently learned that lower development budgets are going to be crucial.

“We saw a lot of potential for the Monument Valley IP to be maybe reset and reinvented for PC and consoles, but what became clear was that our development budgets were too high for us to achieve a safer break even if we were aiming for PC and console,” she said, explaining that the studio has been making games over three- to four-year production cycles for between £7 million to £10 million, and that they have to lower that cost – especially if and when working on new projects outside the established Monument Valley series.

“For example, if we did something like Alba or Assemble With Care, we would have to do that for a lot less money,” said Sayans. “There are people doing really, really well in those spaces on PC for much smaller budgets, that we will never be able to achieve because we’re based in London and have employees with pensions and so on.

“We’ve been a little bit too romantic about the idea that we should have employees and give people long-term job security. I think that got us into a place where, reaching the heights of Monument Valley 3 [production], contractors were always a relatively low percentage of our employee base.”

Sayans said Ustwo will be changing this balance in the future.

“I think going forward, we’ll see that we’ve got a core team and any growth will come through contractors, which is something I hate about the industry. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years, and those of us who joined in the early 2000s, we had it very good. You want to be able to give that kind of stability... but I think that's a shift in how we want to work with people going forward.”

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GreedFall developer Spiders has confirmed that it is shutting down and will cease operations immediately. The gaming industry has been experiencing a lot of woes in recent years, with numerous studios being shut down or losing large amounts of talent due to layoffs. The reasons for this vary case by case, but most of the major gaming giants have been impacted on some level. Unfortunately, even some of the smaller studios are also being hit.

Spiders is a French video game developer that has been around since 2008. The studio was able to find its niche in helping port titles to Xbox 360, but eventually began making its own original titles in the 2010s. The team is best known for its work on the RPG series GreedFall and operated in the “AA” space, a term often used for mid-budget titles. GreedFall found success and sold over 2 million copies in its first three years, prompting Spiders to develop a sequel, which entered early access in 2024 and saw a full release last month.

Just weeks prior to the game’s release, Spiders’ parent company, Nacon, filed for insolvency and attempted to sell Spiders to a different company. Unfortunately, a buyer couldn’t be found, and as a result, Spiders will shut its doors for good immediately. The company took to its X page to announce its closure and provide an update on what will happen with GreedFall: The Dying World's DLC.

“After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated,” reads the statement. “What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it. We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years. If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply.”

It’s unclear if any of Spiders’ IP or assets will be sold off or used by Nacon in other ways. It seems relatively unlikely, given Spiders doesn’t own any other major or notable franchises, and GreedFall: The Dying World was also met with a mixed reception from fans and critics.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.