Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther developer The Chinese Room announced that they have laid off many of its staff, and are taking a “pause” from development. This is not the end of the studio, as founders Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry will stay on alongside lead designer Andrew Crawshaw. The company states that they’re still working on projects, including The 13th Interior and Little Orpheus, although they won’t be “a fully active development team for the time being.”
Dan Pinchbeck honestly laid out the studio’s plans in an open letter to fans on their website. Here’s an excerpt:

This has been on the cards since earlier this year. Back in June, I had a health scare ? nothing life-threatening, but enough to pull me up short and make us have a serious think about things. This was right at the tail end of development on So Let Us Melt, following a long period of ongoing pitches and negotiations to secure the follow-up project for the studio. To cut a long story short, the situation ? between financial pressures, trying to keep the lights on for the employed team, the stress of end-of-development, health issues ? just wasn?t a tenable thing anymore. It was time to take a break, recharge, recover and have a good think about the future. So we let our team go. Lay-offs are never pleasant, particularly when you?re all trying to wrap a game. We did our best to try and help the team secure new positions, and t...