Three Fields Entertainment, the indie team founded by ex-Burnout devs, are laying off its entire staff.
Through a long post attributed to co-founder Fiona Sperry, the team has now been disbanded effective immediately in what is “one of the hardest messages of my career.”
“After twelve years of building and nurturing Three Fields Entertainment, I am forced into the situation of today placing our entire team on notice of redundancy,” the post reads.
Wreckreation released last October as an open world racing game that spiritually feels like Burnout Paradise, but with the ability to create tracks, courses and challenges ala Trackmania.
There will be one more update to Wreckreation which will add cross-play support coming before Christmas, within this year.
How does a small team that self-published small games like Dangerous Golf, Danger Zone, Danger Zone 2, and Dangerous Driving, operating fine for over twelve years, found itself having to let go all of its staff?
Sperry cites this to be an issue with the publisher as they are not getting the support, in particular financial support, to keep the studio afloat.
“As an independent studio, we will not see revenue from game sales for the foreseeable future. We have had to self-fund most of this year and all of the post launch content. Without the enthusiasm or financial support from our publisher to continue development, we simply cannot sustain the studio in its current form.”
Even the aforementioned cross-play update will be released from the devs’ own budget, rather than supported in some form by the publisher.
The post attached a trailer for an upcoming Wreckreation update that includes new game modes, new vehicles (including a forklift and a helicopter) and new UI, but it’s likely will be released if the situation here doesn’t change.