Combat Waffle Studios, developer behind VR extraction shooter Ghosts of Tabor (2024), announced the studio is laying off a number of staff in effort to “align the company with the current state of the VR industry.”
Initially released in early access in 2023, Ghosts of Tabor generated over $30 million in revenue with the sale of over 10 million units leading up to release on PSVR 2 in 2025, making it one of VR’s big success stories.
Notably, in addition to selling well across SteamVR and Pico, the Escape From Tarkov-style shooter is consistently one of the top-selling Quest games of all time too.
In a LinkedIn post, Combat Waffle Studios CEO Scott Albright announced the studio is making staffing cuts as a direct result of current turmoil in the VR gaming industry.
Here’s Albright’s full statement below:
Today we made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team.
As part of this, we are saying goodbye to a number of talented individuals who have contributed meaningfully to our work. We are grateful for their efforts and are committed to supporting them as they transition to new opportunities. Any studio would be fortunate to have them.
We came to this decision after having a project we were working on with a large platform partner get cancelled
These actions are part of a broader effort to align the company with the current state of the VR industry and ensure we are positioned for long term sustainability.
Our focus remains unchanged. Ghosts of Tabor continues to be our core product, and we will continue expanding that universe alongside our partners.
We remain confident in the future of VR and our role within it.
It’s uncertain how many the cuts have affected, or how many remain. In July 2025, Albright noted in a SQR Magazine interview that the studio’s staff totaled 50 employees, which was notably before the Nokomis, Florida-based studio moved from a 7,000 square foot space to a 23,349 square foot building. At the time, Albright said the move could accommodate “an extra 100 people.”
In 2025 alone, Combat Waffle also released Day Z-style multiplayer zombie shooter Silent North and multiplayer survival game Grim, neither of which have yet lived up to the meteoric success of Ghosts of Tabor.
This follows a growing list of studio shutdowns, layoffs, and project cancellations, the most significant of which was Meta’s rash of VR studios cancellations and broad pullback from funding VR games.
As a result, a number of in-progress VR games were cancelled, including an unannounced Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel from Meta’s Sanzaru Games, an unannounced Harry Potter VR game for Quest from Skydance Games, a major project from Moss developers Polyarc, and now, presumably, Combat Waffles next project “with large platform partner.”
Other notable shutdowns include social VR platform Rec Room, VR veteran and Alien: Rogue Incursion studio Survios, and Metro: Awakening satellite studio Vertigo Studios Amsterdam.
