Funcom will lay off staff as it pivots to focus solely on Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening, GamesIndustry.biz reports. The decision narrows the Norwegian studio's output to two live titles. Every other project in its portfolio loses internal backing.

The company has not disclosed the number of affected employees in the initial report. Funcom operates studios across Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Canada and the United States. Its parent company is Tencent, which acquired full ownership of Funcom in 2020.

What does this change for the studio?

The strategy is now a two-product business. Conan Exiles, the survival game that launched in 2018, remains the revenue backbone. Dune: Awakening, the survival MMO set on Arrakis, released in June 2025 and becomes the second pillar. All other development work stops or moves elsewhere.

For teams inside Funcom, this means consolidation around live operations. Live games need content cadence, community management and monetization support rather than greenlight experimentation. Staff attached to projects outside the two named titles face the most direct risk.

For players, the signal is continued investment in the two surviving games. For partners and licensors — Funcom holds rights to both the Conan and Dune properties — the portfolio just shrank to the safest bets.

Why studios converge on live titles

This move follows a familiar pattern in the industry. Rising development costs and uneven demand for new releases have pushed publishers toward established live-service games with predictable income. A studio that supports one or two proven titles spends less on risk than one running several bets in parallel.

Funcom's recent history reflects that pressure. Dune: Awakening sold strongly at launch but sustaining an MMO demands continuous content pipelines, server infrastructure and live teams. Focusing resources on two games is the operational answer to that cost structure.

What to watch next

The exact headcount reduction and the affected locations should surface in the coming days. Watch also for Funcom's next financial disclosure under Tencent, which will show whether the two-title focus stabilizes revenue or whether further cuts follow.