Refactor Games, the studio behind Netflix's FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, laid off 85% of its staff after the game's release — roughly 80 people, notified on Friday, 31 July. The cuts came weeks after Netflix told investors the same game was one of its most successful cloud-game launches on TV.

The layoffs followed a decision by Delphi Interactive, Refactor's co-owner and publisher, to pull funding after the game shipped in June. A former employee told GamesIndustry.biz that Delphi "pulled the plug" on the studio right after release. Affected developers received no severance, according to GameSpot, though their final day coincided with a regular payday. Former staff said on LinkedIn they were let go without warning.

Refactor Games cofounder Nathan Burba confirmed the 85% figure in an interview with GamesBeat. Burba previously cofounded Survios, a virtual-reality studio known for titles like Raw Data. He founded Refactor in 2022 with ambitions to build sports games that players could modify and share — a model the studio hoped to extend beyond football into soccer, hockey and basketball. The FIFA game itself was designed with no annual versions, full customisation and role-playing elements meant to evoke classic football titles. It featured all 48 World Cup teams, 1,238 players and 16 stadiums, playable on TV or computer with up to four people.

The contrast between the game's reception and the studio's fate is stark. During Netflix's latest earnings call, management named FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition and the horror game Unhoused as two of the company's most successful launches ever for cloud games on TV — games streamed from Netflix's servers rather than installed on a device. That was a corporate endorsement from the platform that published it. The funding decision, however, came from Delphi, not Netflix. Netflix declined to comment on the layoffs, and Delphi Interactive's leaders have not publicly addressed them.

The timing puts the studio's full life span at roughly four years. Refactor was founded in 2022, announced its FIFA partnership for a game tied to the 2026 World Cup, shipped the title in June 2026 and saw its funding withdrawn within weeks. GamesBeat first reported the layoffs on 3 August; Polygon and GameSpot followed with additional detail on 4 August.

For the people who built it, the gap between a game called a success and a studio stripped to its skeleton is the part that lingers. The game remains available on Netflix. The team that made it does not.