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Refactor Games, a game studio started in 2022 by Survios cofounder Nathan Burba, helped make the FIFA game on Netflix. Now it has laid off 85% of its staff.
Burba confirmed in a message to GamesBeat that the studio laid off 85% of its staff. Inside Gaming reported separately that 80 people were laid off. Inside Gaming reported that sources said that funding was pulled by Delphi Interactive, the developer and publisher of the FIFA game. Burba did not elaborate on his message.
Back in 2022, Burba said in an interview that the company planned to make a Football Simulator game to compete with EA’s Madden NFL title. It’s not clear exactly when the company shifted to making the FIFA game for Delphi and Netflix. The title of the soccer game was called Netflix’s FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition.
The game was to have no annual versions, full customization capabilities, and by leaning into the RPG element, the goal was to evoke memories of classic football titles that die-hard fans are still playing and still manually adjusting the rosters to this day.
Instead of selling an updated title every year, Refactor said it wanted to turn the power over to the players to modify the game how they see fit — and share those elements with other fans while they eventually expand out to other sports such as soccer, hockey and basketball with the same system.
Burba was cofounder at Survios, a gaming company that led the way in virtual reality with titles like Raw Data. Former employees said on LinkedIn that they had been laid off without warning after the funding was pulled. Staff were notified in a general meeting on July 31.
Delphi’s leaders have not commented on the matter so far. Netflix also declined comment.