{"id":1586028,"date":"2026-05-22T22:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yVvpGdUxGUZgWHpVoZJ9WX"},"modified":"2026-05-22T22:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:42:16","slug":"last-flag-studio-lays-off-half-its-employees-as-it-puts-the-future-of-the-game-in-the-hands-of-our-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/last-flag-studio-lays-off-half-its-employees-as-it-puts-the-future-of-the-game-in-the-hands-of-our-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Flag studio lays off half its employees as it puts ‘the future of the game in the hands of our players’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The CTF shooter Last Flag initially caught our eye because of the co-founders of developer Night Street Games: Mac and Dan Reynolds, better known to the world as, respectively, the manager and lead singer of Imagine Dragons. But it turned out to be a pretty good shooter too: PC Gamer editor Tyler Wilde, who’s no slouch in the field of shooting and capturing, spent some time with it<\/a> in 2025 and “found a lot to like about it<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

But as is so often the case these days, Last Flag struggled to find an audience<\/a>. In April, Night Street Games said it would make the game free to play every weekend<\/a> until its first update came out, but just a week later it pulled the plug<\/a>, saying that “our player count is not currently where we need it to be to support additional development beyond our upcoming planned patches.”<\/p>\n

Last week, executive producer Jonathan Jelinek confirmed the all-but-inevitable “reduction in our team<\/a>,” and in a new statement provided to Game Developer<\/a>, Mac Reynolds, the CEO of Night Street Games, confirmed that “about a dozen employees” were let go in the layoffs, and that 13 remain to pursue new game ideas.<\/p>\n

“Our team poured everything into bringing Last Flag to life, and I’m proud of what we built together,” Reynolds said. “Game development is an inherently risky business, and it’s not lost on us what it means to take a chance on something you believe in.”<\/p>\n

Reynolds said the studio will work with laid-off employees over the next couple months “to help them find new adventures,” and also reaffirmed Night Street’s commitment to giving Last Flag a proper send-off, with new content coming over the next couple months including new characters, maps, game modes, cosmetics, and maybe most importantly, “the ability for players to host lobbies with their own custom game rules.”<\/p>\n

“Putting the future of the game in the hands of our players is something we can all be proud of. After that, Night Street Games will be diving back into new game ideas with our 13 remaining developers. We’ll be sharing more on that later.”<\/p>\n

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