Tales of Kenzera: Zau studio puts team on redundancy notice as it seeks funding

Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studios has put its staff on notice of redundancy as it seeks funding for its next project.

“We’ve decided to put the work of the Surgent games division on hiatus while we secure funding for our next project,” reads a post on X.

“In the meantime, we’ve unfortunately had to put our team on notice for redundancy,” the statement continued. It’s unknown how many staff stand to be affected.

“There are still a couple of exciting updates coming down the pipeline for Zau,”  the statement continues, before calling for anyone with the potential to fund a future project to contact the studio.

Earlier this year, the company laid off over a dozen developers. 

Tales of Kenzera: Zau was released earlier this year. Published as an EA Original title, the game received generally positive reviews at release, with a Metacritic score of 76.

Surgent Studios, the developer behind Tales of Kenzera: Zau is headed by Abubakar Salim, the actor known for his work on House of the Dragon and Assassin’s Creed: Origins.

VGC has reached out to Surgent Studios for comment and will update this story should we receive one.

VGC’s Tales of Kenzera review called it a “challenging, poignant Metroidvania.”

“Tales of Kenzera: ZAU feels like a studio stretching its legs for the first time,” we wrote. “Visually inventive, and full of great platforming, average combat and exploration lets it down.”