PowerWash Simulator studio lays off 7, staff told to call them 'the leavers'

FuturLab, the developer behind PowerWash Simulator, laid off seven developers after cancelling a new project that was in pre-production. The game was not a PowerWash Simulator title and was projected to cost more than it would earn, leading to its cancellation, according to a Gamesindustry.biz report cited by Kotaku.

The handling of the layoffs drew criticism. A report from This Week In Games, citing unnamed sources, said direct managers and team leads of the laid-off workers were kept out of the loop to avoid giving them guilt, while other employees were spared "the stress of not knowing their job security." When the layoffs were disclosed company-wide, sources said staff were told not to use the word "redundancy" and instead refer to the dismissed workers as "the leavers."

The episode reflects growing scrutiny of game industry layoffs, which developers increasingly see as disconnected from a studio's financial health. Studios behind popular games, like PowerWash Simulator, face particular internal and external criticism, and remaining workers fear for their own job stability. FuturLab's euphemistic language appears aimed at blunting that reaction.