The NFT game project Illuvium is undergoing company restructuring, aiming to reduce costs and enhance its financial status. This has resulted in layoffs and some core contributors even opting to receive their payment through the game’s native token or a pay cut.
Illuvium’s Ethereum game studio has undergone a restructuring, resulting in layoffs due to pathetic performance. The rebuilding plan highlights the platform’s goal to reduce costs and enhance its financial runway. The laying off has prevented core contributors from taking their salary and some are provided their payments in the gaming IP’s own token.
According to reports, the downsize comes after the launch of a trio of interconnected games which was launched last year, namely, Overworld, Arena, and Zero. These games covered different genres, however, this was not up to the previous years developments, making the community less interested.
Kieran Warwick, co-founder of Illuvium, admitted that the concerns are valid and it has to be changed. It seems that the cut-off or capping of wages is to reduce the cost, and is part of the change mentioned by Kieran. Not only this, but there are many adjustments the platform has made foreseeing long-term benefits.
Kieran revealed on his X post that as part of their long-term strategy, the team has made a difficult decision to restructure their core contributor team to bring the monthly burn rate closer to $500,000. He also conveyed his gratitude to all users who were affected by the changes. In addition, he revealed that some employees have generously offered to take pay cuts while others were promised to receive their salary in the platform’s token rather than USDC.
In a reply to the post, Illuvium Community Manager, DickKings stated that the company is now down to 66 core contributors and will be down from 100 to 150 people later. He mentioned the cutdown as unfortunate and said many of the evicted members were his friends and the bye was only temporary, indicating that with improvements in circumstances, the members will be taken back.
The restructuring and some other cost-cutting moves have shrunk its burn rate, making it reach near its goal of $500,000, which was $400,000 higher last December.
Illuvium’s Mission To Gain Long-Term Benefit
Before the restructuring plans, Warwick once revealed the team’s plan to seek fresh funding for their franchise. But with the restructuring, they have paused their plan to raise funds. He also opened up about his idea to focus on a single game rather than 3 combined ones, and their plans to rework Overworld, making it more streamlined and reducing microtransactions.
The team hopes that the 24-month runway will make the project to the level it is meant to be, the reworking of Overworld and enhancing the community engagement will pave the path for growth.
The team also revealed that there are more updates to come, and it will come by mid-March. Autodrone runs, multiplayer servers, and leaderboard activated are some of them.
This is not the first time Illuvium has made a cost-cutting effort, the team has been adopting this strategy since 2024. The company lessened the monthly burn rate to $900,000, a very down from the previous high figures. It also reduced administrative salaries and overall wages by $85,000, but even with this the company requires more funds by March 2025 to deliver Overworld’s MMO Lite.