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Enad Global 7 has disclosed that 38 staff members at its Piranha Games studio will be dismissed following the recent release in its Mechwarrior series, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, which “did not perform as anticipated.” In addition, the firm has also declared the complete closure of Toadman, whose latest launch is the 2024 shooter EvilVEvil.
“The team at Piranha genuinely produced a high-caliber game that surpassed both internal and external expectations in terms of quality, narrative, and gameplay,” stated Enad Global 7 CEO Ji Ham. “Despite the exceptional efforts by the team at Piranha, the game was unable to attract new players and broaden its main audience as expected and consequently did not achieve the required sales figures, which has compelled us to take necessary measures.”
We appreciated Clans quite a bit upon its release last year, noting it “offers a compelling tale of young warriors in turmoil alongside the finest-ever rendition of its legendary, lumbering mech combat” in our 82% review. However, player engagement on Steam was not impressive, peaking at a mere 5,600 concurrent players, according to SteamDB—hardly more than the peak achieved by the decade-old Mechwarrior Online.
The layoffs indicate that Piranha can maintain operations with “sustainable profitability” while continuing to create new content for Mechwarrior 5: Clans, according to Enad Global 7, and isn’t it sustainable profitability and new content creation that initially drew us to games?
For similar motivations, but without referring to any specific failures, Toadman will cease operations after “multiple efforts to make the subsidiary profitable” seemingly fell short of their objective. EG7 stated that the shutdown “arises directly from ongoing industry difficulties and the studio’s failure to secure new Work-for-Hire (WFH) agreements at a necessary speed,” resulting in 69 employees and contractors losing their jobs, though 42 will keep working on the studio’s existing contracted projects until they are finished.
It certainly did not assist that Toadman’s 2024 shooter EvilVevil released to an overwhelming lack of interest. We strongly advised against playing it for any reason, and for once people paid heed: Its all-time high concurrent player count on Steam is merely 37, and SteamDB indicates there are literally no players engaged currently.
And thus it continues. 2023 was a disastrous year regarding layoffs in the video game sector, 2024 was even more severe, and 2025 is certainly not starting off on a favorable note: Earlier this week, Splash Damage indicated that layoffs are probable following the cancellation of Transformers: Reactivate, and Jar of Sparks, a studio led by former Halo Infinite design chief Jerry Hook, has ceased work on its unreleased title and effectively closed down after its parent company NetEase withdrew funding for the project.
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