Schell Games cuts staff for second time this year

Schell Games, the Pittsburgh studio that co-developed Among Us VR, has announced its second round of layoffs this year, without disclosing how many employees are affected.

The company confirmed the cuts in a LinkedIn statement. "We're very sad to say that due to this challenging time in the game industry, Schell Games has found it necessary to lay off a significant number of employees in order to ensure a sustainable future for our studio," the statement reads. "While this will enable us to stay stable moving forward, it is incredibly painful as we are losing some fantastic talent."

Which roles are affected?

The studio did not publish a headcount. It did specify the functions being cut, and the breadth is notable — this is not a single-department trim:

• Engineering
• Art and design
• Sound
• Marketing
• IT support
• Research
• QA

That spread suggests a studio-wide cost reduction rather than a project cancellation hitting one team. Schell Games builds VR puzzle games, co-developed the VR adaptation of Among Us, and also produces educational VR experiences — three business lines that presumably all felt the squeeze.

A first-ever layoff, then a second

The August cuts were the first staff reduction in the company's history. Schell Games was founded in 2002 and had gone more than two decades without laying anyone off. Now it has conducted two rounds inside a single year.

That reversal matters because CEO Jesse Schell has been one of the industry's more vocal advocates for avoiding layoffs. He told GamesIndustry.biz in 2024 that the key to stability was, simply, prioritising it.

"It's business. There are no guarantees. But it comes down to what you prioritise," Schell said. "If you prioritise stability, you can stay pretty stable, but you've got to give it a lot of time and thought and attention."

He also offered a bluntly pragmatic read on layoff timing, framing workforce cuts as an avalanche effect.

"Layoffs are like an avalanche. If a company needs to do a layoff, it's a smart idea to do it when everybody else is doing it. Then it's like, Well, it's not us. That's just the economy right now," he said. "So if we're going to do it, we should do it now because then it's not going to make us look like something's wrong with us. It's going to make us look normal. So that's what we're going through right now. Hopefully, everything's going to normalise pretty soon."

What does this change for VR studios?

Two layoffs in four months from a 23-year-old studio with a reputation for stability is a signal about VR market conditions, not just one company's books. Studios across engineering, art, QA and research are being trimmed simultaneously, meaning even diversified developers — games, co-development and educational contracts — are finding VR revenue insufficient to hold headcount.

For teams in the VR segment, the practical takeaway is straightforward: stability strategies that worked for two decades may no longer absorb current market pressure. Watch whether Schell Games discloses headcount figures or restructuring details, and whether other VR-focused studios follow with year-end cuts.