UNKNOWN 9: AWAKENING CRASHES AND BURNS - DEVELOPER THROWS IN THE TOWEL

In what's turning out to be yet another rough start to the year for gaming industry workers, Reflector Entertainment has announced they're pulling the plug on their next project and laying off more staff after their debut game Unknown 9: Awakening failed to make an impact (SPOILER ALERT: THE GAME WAS MORE "UNKNOWN" THAN THEY HOPED).

THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE

Let's talk about that failure, because boy, it's a doozy. The game peaked at a whopping 285 concurrent players on Steam with a painful 49% positive review rate. For context, that's fewer players than some indie games made by single developers in their basement (AND THOSE USUALLY HAVE BETTER REVIEWS).

WHAT WENT WRONG

Despite having The Witcher's Anya Chalotra on board and promises of a rich transmedia universe, Unknown 9: Awakening stumbled harder than a rookie game developer pitching their first battle royale idea. CEO Herve Hoerdt admitted the game's performance "didn't come near the company expectations," which might be the understatement of 2025.

THE AFTERMATH

The studio is now pivoting to work on an existing Bandai Namco IP, probably because creating new IPs is hard enough without them being, well, actually unknown. This follows their previous round of layoffs in November 2024, which they claimed weren't related to commercial performance (NARRATOR: THEY WERE).

WHAT'S NEXT

The remaining staff at Reflector will be consolidated into a single project team, working on what they're calling "an existing Bandai Namco IP." Here's hoping this one turns out better than their first attempt, if only for the sake of the remaining employees.