After years of producing movies, Surgent Studios released their first game this year titled Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. The 2D platformer didn’t perform badly for a debut project, grossing an average Metacritic score of 76 across all platforms, except Nintendo Switch were the score dropped to 71.
However, a new message published by the studio on multiple platforms shows that all is not well, especially in its gaming division. While few updates are still planned for ZAU, Surgent Studios has announced that it is putting its gaming division on hiatus which will lead to redundancies in that division.
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“We’ve decided to put the work of the Surgent games division on hiatus while we secure funding for our next project,” the company wrote on X. “In the meantime, we’ve unfortunately had to put our team on notice for redundancy.”
The message went on to talk about how much work the team at Surgent Studios’ game division had put into creating Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. For now, the studio is looking for a partner to help bring their next project to life. The message from the company in this regard read:
“Our team has created a prototype for a bold new project. It’s darker, edgier, and more visceral than our first game, but it retains all ZAU’s high-octane combat and cultural depth. And we’re looking for a partner.”
Surgent Studios was founded by actor Abubakar Salim with the goal of bringing pioneering philosophy to storytelling across all entertainment platforms—including emerging ones. The studio plans to bring their captivating story worlds to the most compelling medium.
The company’s LinkedIn page shows 22 associated members who are currently at risk of being made redundant unless the company finds a new partner. One person has already updated their profile with the #ReadyToWork green badge. However, the exact number of people that will be impacted if the redundancy goes ahead is unknown.
This is the second round of layoffs that Surgent Studios has had to make this year. The first happened earlier this summer.
