The harsh reality meets Mike Morhaime. His studio Dreamhaven has to lay off people – the gaming crisis has arrived.
Whenever it is said that a former Blizzard employee is founding a new studio, the community rejoices. Many associate the “old veterans” from Blizzard with some of their best gaming memories and believe: This will be good. However, the success of these studios is limited, and now it seems that Mike Morhaime with Dreamhaven is also feeling the effects of the gaming crisis. Dreamhaven has to lay off employees.
Sunderfolk is one of the games from Dreamhaven:
What is going on at Dreamhaven? On LinkedIn Mike Morhaime shared the announcement that there are layoffs. He says:
We have made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our company, with the greatest impact on our publishing department.
Previously, Bloomberg reported that Dreamhaven is facing financial difficulties and that monthly expenses would exceed revenues. Therefore, they are in the process of “rapidly cutting costs” – and that is likely what has just happened.
What games has Dreamhaven released so far? Although the studio was only founded in 2020, Dreamhaven has already published 4 games in its portfolio, of which 3 were launched under Dreamhaven. The 4 games with their ratings (as of 05.09.2025) are:
- Mechabellum (86% positive on Steam)
- Lynked: Banner of Spark (82% positive on Steam)
- Sunderfolk (94% positive on Steam)
- Wildgate (85% positive on Steam)
The ratings of the games are all quite positive, so one would think that the studio must be enjoying success – but it has largely eluded them so far.
What is the problem with Dreamhaven? Although Dreamhaven has already received a lot of positive reviews for some games, the studio has so far failed to engage enough players with its games. Especially Sunderfolk stands at 94% positive ratings on Steam and had some innovative ideas and was praised – but only averages a few hundred concurrent players.
Wildgate also looked promising but lost a large part of its player base almost immediately after release. From initially 3,597 concurrent players on average, only 730 are left within 2 months. For many, the game is considered too complex and overloaded – difficult for newcomers who also rely on a whole team to really enjoy it.
How things will proceed with Dreamhaven seems uncertain, even though Morhaime emphasizes that:
The mission [has] not changed: to bring players together for positive and meaningful experiences. Wildgate, Sunderfolk, Lynked, and Mechabellum reflect this vision, and we are committed to supporting these games and the communities forming around them.
The fact that new games, despite having good concepts and ratings, still struggle to gain a foothold is due to a trend in the gaming industry, at least according to one analyst. He notes that the next generation of players is gravitating towards a few mega-games, the traditional gamer is slowly dying out.
