Free Range Games Lays Off Entire Team Behind Unannounced Project

Free Range Games, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

Free Range Games, the studio behind The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, has reportedly laid off the entire development team of an unannounced game, impacting around 80 employees.

The news surfaced over the past week through a series of LinkedIn posts by former team members, who confirmed that the project had been shelved and their employment ended. Among those affected were senior UX/UI designer Quinn Le, executive producer Jacob Van Rooyen, senior technical narrative designer James Binns, quest designer Tracy Runanin-Telle, and senior producers Adrienne Daniel and Joseph Knox. (Thanks Game Developer)

In one of the more detailed posts, Quinn Le wrote, “On Monday, the project I've been working on for the last 4 years was pulled from our hands, and our entire development team was laid off.”

Joseph Knox attributed the layoffs to the publisher pulling funding, which, according to him, directly impacted all 80 developers involved in the project. Adrienne Daniel echoed that figure, and several of the laid-off employees mentioned they had worked on an open-world game that was never officially revealed.

As of now, Free Range Games has not issued a public statement confirming or denying the layoffs. However, this marks the second reported round of job cuts at the studio this year. Back in April 2025, the studio announced another round of layoffs through social media, without specifying the number of employees affected at the time. That announcement did include a LinkedIn post listing 13 developers from various departments who were seeking new roles.

Despite the ongoing restructuring, Free Range Games continues to develop Wrekless, an upcoming online skateboarding game planned for Steam Early Access. It remains unclear whether this is the same project that was recently canceled or if it’s a separate title still in development. The studio has also previously collaborated on high-profile projects like The Callisto Protocol and Oddworld: Soulstorm as an external development partner.