Dreamhaven layoffs weeks after Wildgate’s launch — the real story for players

Why this hit my radar

Dreamhaven laying off staff just weeks after shipping Wildgate is the kind of news that makes every live-service player sit up. This is Mike Morhaime’s studio-the cofounder of Blizzard-and that pedigree had a lot of us curious whether “ex-Blizzard” could still mean lightning in a bottle. Instead, we’re getting a reminder of how unforgiving today’s multiplayer market is: modest launch traction, a publishing team cut down, and promises that updates for Wildgate and Sunderfolk won’t slow. I’ve seen this movie before. Sometimes the rally comes. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Key takeaways

• Dreamhaven made layoffs primarily in publishing a few weeks after Wildgate’s launch.
• Reported sales are under expectations: roughly 130,000 for Wildgate and 60,000 for Sunderfolk across platforms.
• Morhaime says updates for both games are continuing; no projects were canceled publicly.
• For players, the tell will be update cadence, event frequency, and whether player counts stabilize.

Breaking down the announcement

The cuts are concentrated in publishing-marketing, community, go-to-market support—rather than core development. That tracks with the situation: Wildgate hasn’t landed a breakout audience, and Sunderfolk’s co-op niche is smaller still. Multiple reports peg sales well below expectations, and Steam traction has been modest. Morhaime publicly thanked affected staff and emphasized that updates will continue. That’s the right note to strike, but players have learned to read between the lines: publishing cuts often translate into slower community beats, fewer promos, and reduced visibility exactly when a game needs it most.

What we don’t have are exact headcounts or a revised roadmap. When studios go quiet on specifics, I look for signals instead: do patch notes keep hitting a predictable cadence? Are there in-game events and limited-time modes? Is there a PTR or experimental branch humming? Those are the lifelines for a young multiplayer game trying to claw its way to a stable core audience.

Context: the pedigree problem and a brutal market

Dreamhaven launched in 2020 with a dream-team aura. But 2024-2025 has been a whiplash period for games: higher user acquisition costs, discoverability hell on Steam, and a live-service audience that’s already booked with long-term commitments to Fortnite, CoD, Destiny, and a rotating cast of hits like Helldivers 2 and The Finals. Even teams with ex-Blizzard DNA aren’t immune. Frost Giant’s Stormgate is an example of how to cultivate a core community methodically over years; not every studio has the runway or the marketing chassis to pull that off.

Cutting publishing isn’t just about ad spend. It affects creator outreach, tournament support, onboarding UX experiments, and those little community rituals—free weekends, double XP, lore drops—that convert dabblers into lifers. If Dreamhaven’s burn rate forced a retrench, the gameplay teams now have to carry the momentum largely on their own. That can work if the updates are sharp and consistent, and if the games lean into what players actually stick around for.

What this means if you’re playing Wildgate or Sunderfolk

Short term, Morhaime’s assurance means your patches should keep coming. Watch the next 60-90 days. For Wildgate, a competitive FPS, the make-or-break is a rhythm of balance tweaks, anti-cheat responsiveness, fresh modes, and map cadence. If those land every 2-4 weeks, that’s a good sign. If it slips into “see you next quarter,” that’s the danger zone where queues stretch, matchmaking worsens, and new players bounce.

Sunderfolk is a different beast. Co-op RPGs can survive with smaller populations if they deliver replayable loops—seasonal arcs, modifiers, and meaningful buildcraft that asks you to come back weekly. Publishing cuts may mean fewer flashy trailers and less paid creator content, but players will feel it most in the cadence of events and how quickly community pain points get addressed (loot balance, endgame goals, QoL).

Pricing and monetization will be interesting to watch. When studios tighten belts, they sometimes pivot to shorter paid DLC beats or battle passes to create near-term revenue. That’s not inherently bad—Helldivers 2 showed that low-friction monetization can coexist with goodwill—but it has to be paired with real substance. If Dreamhaven leans on cosmetic passes without core upgrades, players will notice.

Can Dreamhaven turn it around?

Yes—if they get ruthless about focus. Two simultaneous live products is a heavy lift after cutting publishing. The pragmatic path is to identify the title with the higher retention ceiling and rally around it: targeted free weekends, platform deals (subscription promos or timed trials), crossplay incentives, and a transparent roadmap players can actually hold them to. The communication piece matters: dev diaries, public Trello-style boards, and data-backed patch notes signal commitment even when marketing muscle is thinner.

The flipside risk is obvious: if concurrency keeps slipping and updates slow, the community will read the writing on the wall long before any official sunset. No one wants that. The good news for players right now is simple: nothing’s been canceled, and teams are still shipping. The bad news: the studio just admitted the launch didn’t hit. Reality check time.

TL;DR

Dreamhaven cut publishing staff weeks after Wildgate launched, following underwhelming sales for both Wildgate and Sunderfolk. Morhaime says updates continue, but the real test is the next few months: patch cadence, events, and whether player numbers stabilize. If you’re in, judge by actions, not assurances.