The previously laid-off workers from Humble Games have banded together and found a new indie-focused publishing studio Good Games Group.
The new company is being led by former Humble Games bosses Alan Patmore and Mark Nash. The duo will now work with some of the development teams that its staff previously collaborated with when they were still working at Humble Games.
Good Games Group
What is also worth noting about the latest development is that they will be working with Humble Games owner Ziff Davis. This comes only a few months after the latter's layoffs left the entire Humble Games team out of work.
Humble Games staff reported in July 2024 that Ziff Davis made all 36 team members redundant. During that time, the plan was supposedly to have outside consultancy firm The Powell Group complete any remaining publishing projects, according to Eurogamer.
Now, it seems that at least some of the former Humble Games team members are back in the video games industry and working together under their own name.
Patmore said that Good Games Group's mission is to bring exceptional indie games to the global gaming community.
He added that partnering with Ziff Davis will allow them to continue working with the amazing indie developers that they have collaborated with in the past. It would also allow them to chart a new course for the future.
The layoffs at Humble Games were reportedly made due to challenging economic times for indie game publishing companies. It is now unclear whether or not The Powell Group will still be the one to finish the publisher's remaining projects, Rock Paper Shotgun said.
The State of Indie Publishing
The restructuring that led to Humble Games' mass layoffs appears to have been being considered for quite some time. This is based on a leaked recording of a conversation between Ziff Davis' Steve Horowitz.
He allegedly revealed that Ziff Davis tried to sell Humble Bundle publishing two times. However, it was said that neither attempt created significant demand in the market. Neither attempt also unfortunately did not create a viable offer or an outcome.
Indie developers who were working with Humble Games prior to the restructuring efforts said that they could no longer release new updates for their already-launched titles. Many of them also admitted that the news caught them off guard, according to Game Developer.
The Humble Games layoffs followed similar job cuts in November last year that sent ripples through the indie development community. Signalis devs said that they were devastated when they heard about the news.
