Red Rover Interactive Layoffs Hit Enginefall Studio’s Oslo and Newcastle Offices
Red Rover Interactive has confirmed that 22 people are leaving the studio as part of a restructuring that also pushes the launch of its debut game, the train-set survival shooter Enginefall, back to 2027. The Oslo- and Newcastle-based developer disclosed the figure in a statement from CEO Fred Richardson posted to LinkedIn, days after industry outlet Game Developer first reported that layoffs were underway at the company.
Red Rover Interactive is laying off an undisclosed number of employees across its offices in Newcastle, UK, and Oslo, Norway, three years after the studio, formed by industry veterans from Funcom, Bohemia Interactive, and Lockwood Publishing, broke cover and secured $5 million in financing to create a survival franchise. At the time, a Red Rover Interactive spokesperson told Game Developer the company was undergoing a “restructuring process” that would lead to some roles being eliminated in Newcastle and Oslo, without giving a headcount.
22 Roles Cut Across the Oslo and Newcastle Studios
That number has now been confirmed. Red Rover Interactive plans to lay off 22 employees, and has delayed the release of its debut title Enginefall to 2027, with CEO Fred Richardson stating the extended development schedule for Enginefall requires a reduction in employees. Richardson said the studio has “engaged with a specialist games recruiter to support everyone affected” by the layoffs and is “activating the wider studio network to help each person find their next role.”
The developer’s own Steam page for Enginefall backs up the timeline shift directly. In a post-mortem of its recent public test, the studio wrote that “despite the strong Steam Next Fest numbers, we have made the tough decision to delay our launch until 2027.” That statement, published on Enginefall’s official Steam news feed, lines up with the CEO’s LinkedIn message and removes any doubt that the 2026 release window originally floated by Game Developer has now slipped.
Steam Next Fest Success Didn’t Stop the Cuts
The timing has raised eyebrows because the layoffs follow a strong showing rather than a flop. Enginefall participated in this year’s Steam Next Fest, engaging over 200,000 players, and the game had separately racked up wishlists well past the 300,000 mark, according to Game Developer’s original report. Richardson framed the restructuring as a response to that feedback rather than a sign of financial distress, telling staff and the public that the playtest exposed rough edges that need more time to fix.
“It showed us the work still ahead: new player experience, performance, cheat protection, and overall clarity,” Richardson wrote on LinkedIn, adding that “finishing that work to a standard the game deserves requires more time than our previous plan allowed, and taking that time responsibly means a smaller team.” The studio’s Steam post echoes that same list of pain points, tying the delay directly to onboarding, performance and anti-cheat issues flagged during the test.
Krafton’s $15 Million Bet on the Megatrain Shooter
Enginefall is a player-driven, crafting-focused extraction shooter set aboard a vast, moving train, blending ideas from games like Rust and Escape from Tarkov with a social, high-stakes loop of looting, base-building and PvP raids between carriages. In 2024, PUBG maker Krafton led a $15 million investment into the company to accelerate development on its debut project, Enginefall, on top of the studio’s initial $5 million seed round. That brings Red Rover’s total outside funding to roughly $20 million since it went public with the project three years ago.
The scale of the cut relative to headcount underscores how significant the restructuring is for a studio of Red Rover’s size. Norwegian outlet Gamer.no, cited by esports site vpesports, reported that before the layoffs, there were 15 people working in Oslo and 22 in Newcastle, suggesting the Newcastle office in particular has been hit hard. The same report noted the company had actually been profitable in the years leading up to the cuts, with revenue for 2025 amounting to 19.1 million kroner and a profit of 1.3 million kroner, muddying the picture of why a preventative restructuring was deemed necessary now.
What Happens to Testing and the Community Roadmap
Despite the delay, Red Rover says active development and community testing will continue. Testing for Enginefall will proceed, with larger, closed testing sessions planned to continue later in the year, according to the CEO’s LinkedIn update, meaning wishlisted players — including a chunk of the Australian and New Zealand extraction-shooter crowd who jumped into the June Steam Next Fest build — should get further hands-on opportunities well before any 2027 release.
For a studio built on the promise of “infinite engagement” multiplayer survival, the episode is a reminder that strong wishlist numbers and a well-received demo don’t automatically translate into stable headcount. Whether the remaining team at Oslo and Newcastle can hit the reworked 2027 target without further disruption will likely become clearer once Red Rover schedules its next closed playtest.
Read also: id Software: Studio Still Has “Crew We Need” Despite Xbox Layoffs
Join the Conversation