Report: Series Entertainment-owned mobile studio Pixelberry lays off staff

Image via Pixelberry Studios

Series Entertainment-owned developer Pixelberry Studios, best known for the mobile game Choices, has reportedly laid off staff.

Word of the alleged layoffs comes via LinkedIn, where a senior game writer at Pixelberry said that “the game dev layoff beast caught me at last” after over eight years with the studio.

“Lots of other wonderful people were impacted today,” wrote a senior writer and writing manager at Pixelberry, who was also reportedly laid off after over eight years. “If you get an application from someone who worked at Pixelberry, know that they are some of the best in the business and will put their heart into any game that they work on.”

“Turns out three waves of layoffs is the max I can survive, so while it wasn’t by choice, I guess I’m now officially a full-time author,” wrote a writer for Choices. “Unfortunately, a lot of talented people were laid off along with me.”

The extent of the reported layoffs is unknown. Isador Pinto, who worked as a game editor at Pixelberry from 2022 to 2024, listed nine people, mentioning on Friday that “another layoff hit Choices this morning.” Despite having no recent history with the studio on LinkedIn, Pinto added that “I still have my position (AFAIK).”

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The reported round of job cuts would be the second one in two years. In January 2024, Pixelberry reportedly laid off an unknown number of employees, who also used LinkedIn to announce their departures.

At the time, Pixelberry was owned by Nexon, the studio and publisher behind MapleStory, Dungeon & Fighter, and Dave the Diver. Nexon acquired Pixelberry in 2017 for an undisclosed fee. Then, generative AI developer Series Entertainment purchased the studio seven months later.

Back then, Series co-founder Pany Haritatos deemed Pixelberry a “category leader in the interactive fiction genre,” expressing hope to evolve the studio to “the next level.” For Pixelberry, this meant using its new parent company’s Rho engine. The proprietary engine has been touted by Series as the first “AI-native, multimodal full-stack game creation platform.” 

It’s worth mentioning that generative AI is a technology that has carried a negative reception from developers during the past few years, with many arguing that it is having a deleterious impact on the industry.

Game Developer has contacted Pixelberry Studios for clarification.

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