Arcen in Serious Financial Trouble, Layoffs Imminent

For the second time in their history, Arcan Games have sustained a massive financial loss. With the recent release of Starward Rogue, there was hope that the company could recoup some of their recent losses, but a strong critical reception for the game hasn't translated into physical sales and the company have announced via their official website that they simply can't sustain their current staffing levels. 

This isn't the first time that the company have had troubles. A similar situation occurred in 2010, but thanks to support from fans, they were able to recover. At that time around half of their developers were laid off, but half were able to stay on and the company entered a period of growth. This was then followed up bu another round of lay-offs in 2014. Unfortunately, this time it looks like there isn't much that can be done and the company will be operating with a skeleton staff as from Monday.

Their next game, Stars Beyond Reach, is being cited as one of the main problems. It was a large project, much larger than anything that the firm had attempted before. Arcen CEO Chris Park feels that the overambitious design was a major downfall. The amount of time and money spent on R&D for the game as well as testing and rewriting has cost much more than was expected. It is still expected to see the light of day, however with a lot of low level modifications along the way. Sadly, many of the former staff of Arcen will not be around to see their work come to fruition on the game.