Indie publisher Devolver Digital has cut staff at Reigns developer Nerial by 40 percent.
In Devolver Digital’s FY24 investor presentation, the publisher explained Nerial had “undergone a team restructure” which aimed to “address issues around recent releases and to better shape the team for future releases”.
In the same presentation, Devolver Digital said it had downsized its Polish studio Artificer by 50 percent early last year.
“Good Shepherd / Big Fan also reduced its headcount by 50 percent + over the course of 2024,” it wrote. “Overall group headcount has reduced from a peak of 303 at end 2023 to c. 270 now, including the above reductions.”
Nerial is one of Devolver Digital’s internal studios, which it acquired in 2021. As reported by Game Developer, Nerial’s Reigns franchises is one the publisher’s most successful, earning over $20m in lifetime revenue across five titles.
Along with its Reigns games, Nerial is also known for its “thirst-person shooter” The Crush House (pictured above), which was released last year, as well as Card Shark.
“Even though some parts might momentarily break the illusion, The Crush House maintains its shiny sheen of plastic perfection (one that hides a dark, sickly goo inside). It touches upon multiple facets of reality TV with sharp satire and wit, including the nature of the relationships we have with contestants on these shows, the industrial churn of people and their lives for our entertainment, and the truth of what’s captured on screen impacting what’s happening when the cameras are off,” reads Eurogamer’s four star The Crush House review.
“You’ll definitely want to tune in for this one.”
As for Card Shark, here is what Christian Donlan had to say about it: “Card Shark is brilliant. It’s a game about card games, but it isn’t a card game itself – not really. It’s a game about tricks, but you’re in a world of con artists rather than magicians.”