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Wayfinder dev Airship Syndicate lays off 12 employees

Months after gaining full control of its free-to-play game Wayfinder, Airship Syndicate is letting some of its staff go.

Justin Carter, Contributing Editor

January 31, 2024

1 Min Read
Promo image for Airship Syndicate's Wayfinder.
Image via Airship Syndicate.

At a Glance

  • To help keep the studio going, Airship Syndicate leaders Joe Madureira and Ryan Stefanelli are cutting their own salaries.

Airship Syndicate, the studio behind Wayfinder and Battle Chasers: Nightwar, cut 12 positions today.

Per Polygon's Nicole Carpenter, there were also pay slashes for president Ryan Stefanelli and CEO Joe Madureira. In industry layoffs thus far, none saw executives cut their own salaries.

In the case of Destiny 2 developer Bungie, leadership said it was "not that type of company" when asked if upper-level staff would take pay cuts.

Of the pay reductions, a representative for the studio said they would "ensure that Airship Syndicate can continue to operate and deliver great experiences."

This past November, Airship Syndicate was given full control of its free-to-play title Wayfinder by Digital Extremes. At the time, Digital Extremes laid off 30 members of its publishing and external teams.

It's unclear what these new reductions mean for Wayfinder or any other projects Airship Syndicate is working on.

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Layoffs

About the Author

Justin Carter

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.

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