The development team behind VR titles such as Myst, Riven, Firmament, and Obduction has announced a significant staff reduction, letting go of approximately 50% of their workforce, translating to around a dozen skilled employees.
Cyan has officially addressed this situation with the following statement:
Today we find ourselves sharing some very unfortunate news. Despite our best efforts to avoid this course of action, we at Cyan have made the challenging choice to reduce our overall team size—leading to the departure of twelve talented individuals, nearly half of our team, effective at the end of March.
Recent industry conditions have placed us in a difficult position where we must balance the future stability of our studio against the month-to-month challenges of game development in 2025. Over the past year, we have been transparent with our team about the turbulent situation we are navigating, as well as the potential difficulties that lie ahead. While none of our team members were taken by surprise regarding this announcement, it remains a profoundly saddening moment for all of us.
Although we’ve endeavored to ease the transition for those impacted through severance packages, we encourage fellow developers seeking exceptional talent to get in touch.
At present, our primary focus is to secure funding for our upcoming project and to stabilize our studio’s operations. We have an extensive history in this industry and have managed to weather tough periods before. We genuinely hope to continue our journey and to provide unique experiences that only Cyan can offer.
We remain thankful for the unwavering love and support from our remarkable player community.
While the statement doesn’t explicitly refer to VR, it’s worth noting that Cyan is part of a select group of studios experienced in developing games featuring hand tracking technology.
How is it possible that major companies like Apple, Meta, Google, Valve, and Sony overlook funding teams such as Cyan to create more immersive VR experiences?