Volume, John Wick Hex Studio Bithell Games Loses ‘Majority’ Of Staff To Layoffs

Bithell Games, the studio behind titles like Volume, John Wick Hex, and this year’s Tron: Catalyst, has been hit with layoffs. The resulting departures have dramatically reduced the studio’s size.

In a social post, studio head Mike Bithell explains his team was unable to secure funding for a large-scale project. “It has become clear leading up to the release of our most recent game that we were not immune to the challenges faced by many game development teams seeking funding partners in 2024 and 2025,” Bithell writes.

As a result, 11 employees have been let go, which Bithell says “constitutes the majority of our full-time staff.” He adds that the studio had preemptively prepared for this outcome and is working with affected employees to ease their departure and provide severance packages.

Bithell also says the layoffs will not affect the availability and support of its current released catalog of self-published titles. You can read his full statement below (click the image to enlarge).

Mike Bithell came to prominence with Thomas Was Alone, a narrative-driven abstract puzzle-platformer. After forming Bithell Games, the studio gained a strong reputation for well-received releases such as the 2015 stealth game Volume and the acclaimed 2017 text-based adventure titles Subsurface Circular. The last few years have seen it delve into making inventive and stylish takes on licensed properties, such as the strategy title John Wick Hex (which was delisted last month), the visual novel puzzle title Tron: Identity, and 2025’s Tron: Catalyst, a top-down action game. Bithell Games has also published titles from its label developer Lunar Division: The Banished Vault and the upcoming Amberspire.