Coliseum

Ivy Road Studios, the team behind last year’s well-received narrative shop simulator Wanderstop, is closing its doors tomorrow, March 31. The team announced the news this past Friday.

The studio was founded by Davey Wreden, known as the creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide. In a website post, the team explains that it was unable to secure funding for its next project, known as Engine Angel. Because of this, the studio must shut down. “It’s a particularly tough time for raising game funds, so while we weren’t necessarily surprised, we are disappointed that we won’t be able to bring Engine Angel to life together as a team,” reads a section of Ivy Road’s post. The team also provides a link to a 35-second concept video showing off what looks like a whimsical car combat game. 

As for what this means for Wanderstop, the game will remain available for purchase on each platform it’s listed on, and owners will still be able to download and install it. Ivy Road also reveals that it has been working on one final surprise for the game to help it reach new players. Publisher Annapurna Interactive will share more about what this is in the future.

In the meantime, Ivy Road shared a chapter select code that will allow players to revisit specific chapters in Wanderstop or serve as a remedy to players who get stuck. This is activated by typing in the following command at the game’s main menu screen using the d-pad: UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, B (RMB), UP, RIGHT, DOWN, LEFT, UP, B (RMB), UP, DOWN, UP.

Wanderstop stars a retired warrior named Alta who begrudgingly helps manage a tea shop in a magical forest. Although the game sports cozy mechanics, such as harvesting ingredients to brew teas and managing the store and its whimsical customers, it’s a narrative-focused adventure that centers on Alta’s mental health stemming from her fighting days.

Executive Editor Kyle Hilliard scored Wanderstop an 8 out of 10 in his review, in which he writes, “I admire the game for being able to use video game genre conventions to tell a pensive, funny, and surprising story set in a charming location with enjoyable characters. Watching Alta grow and accept her limitations will stick with me and make me reflect on my own inability to turn off and just relax. I appreciate any art that makes you think in that way, and Wanderstop is successful in that goal.” 

Last week, we learned the sad news that Epic Games would be laying off over 1,000 of its employees due to “downturn in Fortnite engagement” and a general decline in revenue. For the hundreds of now-former employees, it was devastating, but for Mike Prinke and his family, it was uniquely terrible: according to his wife, Prinke has a terminal illness, and losing employment means he also loses his life insurance. (Thanks to IGN, for bringing the story to our attention).

According to his LinkedIn, Prinke worked at Epic Games since 2019 as a technical writer and programmer writer. In his role as programmer writer manager (which he held from May 2024 to November 2025), he led a team “responsible for programming resources for UE, UEFN, and other products at Epic Games.”

On March 28, Jenni Griffin, who is married to Prinke, posted on Facebook about her husband’s illness, revealing that Prinke is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. “Because of the layoff, we didn’t just lose income—we lost his life insurance,” the post reads. “And because his condition is now considered a pre-existing condition, he can’t get new coverage.” Griffin’s post ends with a plea to Prinke’s former employers for help, as well as a request for the message to be shared. Screenshots have since been posted to various other social media sites, with comments including various messages of sympathy and outrage.

Eventually, the screenshots made their way to X, where a post by @BackersGamesF shared the story, tagged Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, and gained tens of thousands of likes and shares. Yesterday, however, Sweeney responded to the post with the following statement:

Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them. There is high confidentiality around medical information and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.

Yesterday, Griffin also edited her original Facebook post to say, “UPDATE (3/29): WE ARE IN TALKS NOW WITH THE APPROPRIATE PEOPLE! WILL UPDATE SOON, LIKELY BY TUESDAY. THANK YOU.” While we don’t know what agreement, if any, the two parties will reach, it seems they’re at least in conversation about potential solutions.

Waves of mass layoffs continue to be an upsetting trend in the gaming industry, with Crystal Dynamics, Battlefield Studios, Ubisoft, Riot, Bluepoint, and Wildlight all laying off scores of workers this year alone. Developers generally cite low sales and high development costs as reasons for the cuts, even when the games the companies produce seem like successes. In the most recent layoffs at Epic, Sweeney also blamed low sales for the newest console generation. Three days later, Sony raised the price of the PS5.

Source: IGN