Just a few months after the release of Wayfinder, Digital Extremes withdrew from its role as publisher and transferred all rights to the game to development studio Airship Syndicate. During its announcement at the Game Awards in December 2022, Digital Extremes explained that this partnership with Airship Syndicate had started 4 years earlier. It must be said that veteran Richard Browne, in charge of external projects at Digital Extremes, already knew Joe Madureira’s team well having signed Darksiders to THQ a long time ago.
Around thirty layoffs to deplore
Warmly received by the press and players when it debuted on August 17 on PlayStation and PC, Wayfinder was Digital Extremes’ first partner game, but it will also be the last. Digital Extremes has in fact decided to dissolve its team in charge of external projects and therefore to lay off around thirty people. The Canadian studio, of which there was recent talk of a change of CEO, is therefore refocusing on its in-house games, namely Warframe, whose success has lasted for 10 years, and Soulframe, its new action RPG currently in development.
After titles like Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Darksiders Genesis and Ruined King, Wayfinder represents a significant shift towards online play for Airship Syndicate. The game, however, shows a peak of only 840 simultaneous players on Steam over the last 24 hours, which seems light for a title whose success depends on its ability to bring together a community. As it stands, Airship Syndicate does not intend to give up and hopes to at least reach the end of early access (currently paid) with a view to an official launch in free-to-play format.
“ We thank Digital Extremes for helping us launch Wayfinder and getting us to this point in our journey. Airship Syndicate owns the Wayfinder intellectual property, and we have no plans to stop development of the game now. We look forward to continuing to grow the game alongside our players as we take over operations. The game has a long way to go in Early Access, but with the trust of our players and our dedicated Airship team, we can – and we must! – get there “, can we read on the game’s X account.