Game Developer has learned that Humble, the game sales bundling platform that’s sometimes also a game publisher, laid off a number of employees this week.
The layoffs took place in the engineering and customer service departments. In a statement to Game Developer, Humble stated this decision followed a recent restructuring.
“Recently we restructured our operations to invest in key growth areas and strengthen the future of Humble Bundle’s e-commerce business,” the company stated. “Unfortunately this meant that some roles in engineering and customer service were impacted.”
Humble confirmed that 10 employees were impacted by this decision.
Humble’s business plans and direction have been the subject of some consternation and questioning in the last year. The company tried to get rid of the charity sliders that helped fuel its rise, rebranded its bundle and publishing businesses, and debuted a game launching program for subscribers.
It also axed Mac and Linux support for subscribers earlier this year.
It’s been five years since media giant IGN acquired Humble (then named Humble Bundle), in a deal that brought the platform under the fold of digital media conglomerate J2 Global. At the time, executive vice president Mitch Galbraith told us that the company had no intention of changing how Humble does business.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Galbraith said at the time. “The idea is just to feed them with the resources they need to keep doing what they’re doing.”
He departed Ziff Davis in 2019.
In the same year, cofounders Jeffrey Rosen and John Graham would also leave Humble, expressing a desire to take a break now that the company had grown so large.
These layoffs seem relatively minor from an overall business perspective, but it is always frustrating to see rank-and-file workers laid off due to executive strategy shifting.
It is also confusing as to how engineering and customer support positions would not be needed in an ecommerce-focused restructuring.