The video game industry isn’t in a good state at the moment. There have been a number of high-profile studio closures and staff layoffs at juggernauts like the Embracer Group and Epic Games. In the VR space, Meta has initiated a round of layoffs in its custom chip department and now Digital Lode has joined that unenviable group. The studio behind the Espire stealth games, it’s revealed that content updates will end as staff redundancies are made.
Digital Lode made the announcement on its Espire Discord server. “We are sorry to let you know that Lode (developer of the Espire games) is unfortunately in a position where we need to further downsize. We know the timing of this is just terrible,” the announcement explains.
It goes onto say: “We have held out as long as we could but have had to make this decision now to ensure we can pay out all employee redundancy entitlements and debtors. We will be doing all we can to support the talented team in finding future roles.”
Espire is on hiatus
Due to the downsizing and the smaller team, the studio notes that this will affect future content. “We hope things can turn around for LODE, but for now, our games will still be supported in maintenance-only without new content for the foreseeable future.”
The studio originally released Espire 1: VR Operative in 2019 followed by Espire 2: Stealth Operatives in 2022. Both games worked around the idea of players being a secret agent. The twist was that you controlled a robotic ‘Espire’ unit in missions, accessing superhuman abilities and cool tech. You could then tackle missions as quietly or loudly as you saw fit. Earning bonuses for not getting caught and damaging the Espire unit.
Over the past few months, the team has been hard at work releasing more content updates. These have included an Espire 2 mixed reality mode for Quest 3 and an Espire 2 PICO 4 edition. Most recently, a tranche of new updates arrived for the PCVR edition of Espire 1: VR Operative.
What are your thoughts on the Espire content updates coming to an end? Let us know in the comments below.