Norwegian game publisher Funcom is undergoing layoffs that include the shutdown of Metal: Hellsinger studio The Outsiders. Perhaps one of the most unique FPS games to ever be released, the rhythm-based shooter took a ton of inspiration from Doom and impressed fans of the genre with its hard-hitting heavy metal soundtrack when it was released in 2022. The Outsiders continued to roll out numerous post-launch DLCs and updates to Metal: Hellsinger, adding new tracks and cosmetics to the game.
The Outsiders’ parent company, Funcom, is in a strange and unique position at the moment. One of its most recent games, Dune: Awakening, the MMORPG set in Frank Herbert’s celebrated sci-fi universe, was released in June and sold one million copies in its first two weeks, becoming the publisher’s fastest-selling title ever. Somehow despite this, Funcom expressed earlier this month that it’s making some layoffs to its Dune: Awakening team as part of a restructuring as the studio goes from development to live service maintenence on the MMORPG. Currently, Dune: Awakening is only available on PC; its Xbox and PlayStation ports are due to release sometime next year.
Funcom Closes Metal: Hellsinger Studio The Outsiders
These unfortunate Funcom layoffs are continuing to take hold, and they don’t seem to be stopping with the Dune: Awakening team. On Bluesky, David Goldfarb, the founder and creative director of The Outsiders, announced that the entire Metal: Hellsinger team is being shut down by Funcom. Goldfarb concluded the message by asking for assistance and guidance on behalf of The Outsiders’ employees, and expressing that the team will try and find a way to carry on together, saying, “…we are not giving up, and we are going to try to continue on in some new form…Change is always tough and right now we are all hurting.”
[image or embed]— david goldfarb (@locust9.bsky.social) October 6, 2025 at 10:55 AM
The Outsiders was formed in 2015 largely by ex-EA and Battlefield developers. Metal: Hellsinger was the only game the studio was able to release, as its predecessor, a first-person fantasy action game named Darkborn, was canceled in 2020. It was this same year that Metal: Hellsinger was initially revealed, with Funcom acquiring The Outsiders a year later, in 2021. After the release of Metal: Hellsinger, The Outsiders provided development help on Dune: Awakening, a game that went on to become Funcom’s biggest, most successful title yet. With all this in mind, it’s hard to know why The Outsiders was a target of Funcom’s restructuring layoffs, as the studio seemed to serve more as a support studio for Dune: Awakening. It’s also not known whether The Outsiders was working on a new game of its own or if supporting Dune: Awakening was its only task at the time of closure.
…we are not giving up, and we are going to try to continue on in some new form…Change is always tough and right now we are all hurting.
It’s impossible to know at the moment how David Goldfarb’s hopes of trying to keep The Outsiders together will materialize, as many studio members will likely need to split off to find work elsewhere in the wake of Funcom’s studio closure. It’s disappointing to see that, no matter how unique a game can be in the case of Metal: Hellsinger, or how valuable a team’s work can be in the case of The Outsiders’ contributions, however small, to the success of Dune Awakening, studio security is so rare in this current industry climate.