Refactor Games reportedly lays off 85% of staff

• Refactor Games has reportedly laid off 85% of its staff.
• It was reported that affected staff were offered no severance as Delphi Interactive ended funding.

Refactor Games has reportedly laid off 85% of its staff less than eight weeks on from the release of FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition on Netflix Games.

Refactor Games co-founder and CEO Nathan Burba confirmed the cutbacks to GamesBeat. He previously co-founded VR games maker Survios in 2013, then established Refactor Games in January 2022.

Football and funding

Prior to confirmation of the layoffs by Burba, Insider Gaming reported that around 80 people had been impacted.

According to the outlet, staff were informed of the layoffs during a general meeting on July 31st and were offered no severance due to Delphi Interactive, developer and publisher of the FIFA game, ending funding immediately.

However, there was believed to be hope that a number of staff may be hired back for another project in the near future.

The football title, FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, released at the start of the real World Cup - a sports event many games have leveraged this summer. It was made available to Netflix subscribers via their TVs and the web with mobile phones serving as controllers for one to four players.

The title can be played single-player or in local co-op. Burba served as game director and lead engineer on the project, which was said to have had a "very short development cycle".