Report: Crossfire dev That's No Moon lays off 14 staff

That's No Moon has cut 14 employees, adding another round of turbulence to a studio best known publicly for its work on Crossfire. The layoffs are modest in absolute terms, but they still matter: every reduction in a live production team can ripple through scheduling, content scope, and the amount of parallel work a studio can sustain.

The studio’s Crossfire project was revealed in June, with Smilegate and Tencent subsidiary Team K1 serving as publishers. That kind of backing usually signals a large-scale production, which makes any staffing reduction worth watching closely. When teams shrink mid-development, the pressure tends to shift toward remaining staff, especially in art, design, engineering, and production roles that depend on tight coordination.

The exact roles affected haven’t been disclosed, so it’s unclear whether this was concentrated in one discipline or spread across the studio. Even so, the practical takeaway for developers is familiar: publisher support does not eliminate production risk, and headcount changes can happen well after a project has been announced. For teams planning their own schedules, it’s a reminder to keep milestones, staffing assumptions, and contingency plans realistic.