News & Commentary

KO_OP layoffs

A worker-owned indie studio and IGN laid off staff on the same day - and the casualty pattern points at the mid-tier budget range, not at any one business model.

Worker-owned indie studio KO_OP laid off all 13 employees on September 14, citing a 'radically changed' games funding landscape. The same day, IGN laid off union members and staff including producers, editors, and hosts. The 2026 industry layoff projection has doubled to roughly 14,666 expected job losses, matching 2024's peak. One in three US game developers has been laid off in the past two years.

KO_OP wasn't a venture-backed studio burning investor money - it was structured specifically so the people doing the work owned the outcome. If that structure still didn't survive, the story isn't about one studio's choices.

KO_OP proves ownership structure doesn't protect you from market structure. They democratized the studio but couldn't democratize the risk sitting underneath it. The mid-tier budget range that used to sustain studios their size has largely evaporated, and players haven't stopped buying games - Valheim just exited Early Access straight to #1 on Steam. The casualties are concentrated in the middle, not the extremes: the biggest studios and the smallest bedroom devs are still standing; everyone in between is the casualty class this cycle is producing.

The lesson isn't 'unionize' or 'go worker-owned' - KO_OP already was. It's that surviving this market is a scope decision before it's a structure decision. If you want my real, nitty gritty read on the situation – make games that players want to play. If you make art projects all of your career, you'll end up like all the great artists. Penniless until you die.