Pixelberry Studios, the mobile developer behind the popular interactive fiction game Choices, has reportedly laid off staff again, according to Game Developer. This follows a previous round of cuts at the studio in 2024, suggesting the company is navigating ongoing instability.
Pixelberry operates under Series Entertainment, which positions the studio within a larger mobile gaming portfolio. The exact number of employees affected in this latest round has not been disclosed, keeping the full scope of the cuts unclear for now.
The Choices franchise has built a dedicated audience through its branching narrative stories spanning romance, fantasy, and drama genres - the kind of mobile engagement that typically drives solid retention numbers. Despite that player base, the studio appears to be feeling the same financial pressures that have squeezed much of the games industry over the past two years.
Layoffs across the games industry have been relentless since late 2022, with mobile studios feeling the crunch particularly hard as advertising costs climbed and user acquisition became significantly more expensive following Apple's App Tracking Transparency changes. Studios that built their business models around paid UA pipelines have been forced to restructure, and Pixelberry seemingly isn't immune to those headwinds.
For the staff affected, this is the second wave of uncertainty in roughly a year, which makes rebuilding or pivoting internally an especially difficult task. The games industry overall has shed tens of thousands of jobs since 2023, and mobile-focused studios have been among the hardest hit segments.
There's been no public statement from Pixelberry or Series Entertainment at the time of writing. Game Developer's report remains the primary source on this development, and further details around the scope of the layoffs or any strategic changes at the studio have yet to surface publicly.
