Indie publisher Versus Evil closed and all staff laid off

Versus Evil, the publisher behind The Banner Saga and Pillars Of Eternity 2, among others, has been closed down and its entire staff laid off. Versus Evil were bought by tinyBuild in November 2021.

“Entire 13 person company, Versus Evil, laid off today December 22 at the start our Christmas break,” wrote former director of product strategy Francis Fincke on LinkedIn.

The Versus Evil account on X confirmed the news. “Today is a sad day. After 10 wonderful years, Versus Evil is shutting its doors. We’ve loved bringing you the best indie games we could find & sharing so many happy memories with you all, our amazing community! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for everything!”

Versus Evil was founded in 2013 as an indie game publisher and helped to release games such as Tower Of Guns, Amikrog, Faeria, and many more. Its founder Steve Escalante announced he was leaving the company “in the near future” earlier this month.

Escalante had been involved in litigation against tinyBuild, alleging that the publisher had breached obligations of their agreement in purchcasing Versus Evil. tinyBuild announced in a recent trading update that they had settled the litigation, agreeing to pay the claimants “$3.5 million in cash (in addition to legal costs).”

tinyBuild also closed Hakjak Studio, the developers of the upcoming Pigeon Simulator, earlier this month.

Both these closures come at the tail of a year beset by layoffs within the video game industry, with the tracking website videogamelayoffs.com estimating 10,000 staff have been laid off in 2023.