It’s been a rough 2023 for the video game industry in terms of mass layoffs. Unfortunately, the holiday season has proven to be no protection against this trend. Today, the indie console and PC game publisher Versus Evil announced it was shutting down its operations.
Today is a sad day. After 10 wonderful years, Versus Evil is shutting its doors. We've loved bringing you the best indie games we could find & sharing so many happy memories with you all, our amazing community! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for everything! ♥️
— Versus Evil 🛡️ (@vs_evil) December 22, 2023
The announcement was made on the publisher’s X (formerly Twitter) page. The farewell message stated in part:
We’ve loved bringing you the best indie games we could find & sharing so many happy memories with you all, our amazing community! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for everything!
The publisher’s head of production Lance James posted word on X that the entire staff of Versus Evil was laid off today as part of this shutdown. In a follow-up post, James stated, “Let me be clear – this wasn’t a Versus Evil decision or choice.”
Versus Evil was founded in 2013, offering smaller indie game developers a way to get their titles published outside of the normal major game publishers. Over the years it has released games like The Banner Saga series, along with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, Mothergunship, and more.
In 2021, Versus Evil was acquired by TinyBuild. However, Gamesindustry.biz reports that the leadership of Versus Evil later had a legal dispute with TinyBuild, claiming that it had not fulfilled a number of promised obligations. In the end, TinyBuild agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle the issues with Versus Evil.
The publisher had a number of upcoming games it was due to release in 2024 including Lil’ Guardsman, Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients, and Broken Roads. The fate of these games is currently unknown.