Auroch Digital has announced job cuts, with 25% of its staff facing redundancy. In a written statement posted to social media (and now mysteriously deleted) the indie developer, responsible for games like Warhammer 40k Boltgun and Wildermyth, declared its decision to “restructure the studio”.
The post chalked the job cuts to prevailing headwinds in the video game industry, writing that “the same market conditions that have challenged so many of our fellow developers have now also affected us”.
The indie studio, located in Bristol, England, is responsible for multiple recent Warhammer 40k games. After releasing a game every year or two, 2026 has been Auroch’s busiest year by far, with Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War released in March, Boltgun 2 launched earlier this month, and Warhammer Survivors planned for November 2026. Both of the titles released this year have a 90%+ positive Steam rating.
In the statement, which now no longer appears on Auroch’s LinkedIn or Twitter pages, the studio said it was immensely proud of what its staff had achieved and deeply sorry for the situation.
Despite revenue continuing to rise, video games as a whole looks to be in a sorry state, and job losses – always a dole and dismal pitter-patter in the background of this industry – have steadily grown into a deluge over the past several years. Just last week, EA shut down BioWare and October has already seen job cuts at Activision, Xbox, Gravity Well, and Supermassive.
Though consumer spending keeps improving, it’s increasingly concentrated on a few giga live service games like Roblox and Fortnite, with the limited attention left for everyone else affecting all – from AAA studios to the smallest of indies. Meanwhile, technological progress keeps pushing game production costs and development cycles up and up.
Source: Wargamer
