Deliver Us The Moon and Deliver Us Mars creator KeokeN Interactive has failed to secure a deal for publishing its next game, resulting in massive layoffs at the Dutch developer. To put it simply, the two studio leaders have had to lay off the entire team, having "exhausted all possible options" before making this decision.
They've taken to Twitter to announce this news following the 2024 Game Developer's Conference (GDC) - where they were hoping to secure some sort of publishing deal for future titles. Here's the team's full message, posted on the social media platform:
Interestingly, the post also says that a Kickstarter project for its next game, Deliver Us Home, is being "prepared" behind the scenes. We're assuming that this crowd-funding effort will be spun up by KeokeN's two remaining workers — Koen Deetman (CEO) and Paul Deetman (Managing Director) — but exactly how development will move forward beyond this remains to be seen.
Way back in 2020, Deliver us the Moon joined Xbox Game Pass for around a year - although its follow-up Deliver Us Mars never came to Microsoft's subscription service. However this team and its games progress in the future, we hope that everyone affected by these layoffs lands on their feet and gets work as soon as possible.