Ex-Ubisoft Staff Announce Co-op Survival Game Out of Office!
The game comes from a studio founded by George Greer, one of 71 people laid off when Ubisoft Halifax closed in January, making the project a direct response to the province's shrinking game development workforce.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Developer besszong. has announced Out of Office!, a co-op game for 2 to 6 players that uses proximity voice chat. Players are employees of an outdated tech company sent on a mandatory team-building training trip in a Nova Scotia national park. Early access is planned for spring to summer 2027 on PC via Steam, with Japanese display planned.
The game's premise is a direct product of its developer's circumstances. Players take on the roles of employees at an outdated tech company, forced into a wilderness training trip where they test the company's own products while managing hunger, a filling bladder, ticks, and poison. If the energy gauge runs out, the player is fired, and losing a member imposes penalties on the group, though a departed player can return through an employee referral.
Developer besszong. is based in Nova Scotia, the same province where the game is set. Founder George Greer was at Ubisoft Halifax when its closure was announced in January, and was among the 71 people laid off. He founded the studio with veterans from Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and Bethesda Game Studio, plus graduates of Nova Scotia Community College, a hiring choice Greer connected to gratitude toward the local support group that helped him after the layoff.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.