Forte closes Rumble Entertainment, second studio closure in two months

Forte has reportedly closed mobile developer Rumble Entertainment.

According to a LinkedIn post from former senior web architect David Bethune, employees at Rumble – also known as R Studios – were recently “fired with a month’s salary in a Zoom meeting that lasted five minutes.”

“I’m sad to be the first to report that R Studios, formerly Rumble, has been closed today by our new owner, Forte. This is their second recent studio to close after Phoenix Labs got this treatment a few weeks ago.”

In a candid, passionate post, Bethune said Rumble’s last two owners, Forte and Aristocrat, “were ruthless in chasing mythical future profits while abandoning the teams that actually make things.”

Employees were especially shocked by the closure, as Rumble’s former CEO, Mark Spenner, had only “recently passed away.”

“Mark kept the studio running and maintained a healthy, productive work environment. I will miss Mark and the studio,” said former lead VFX artist John Beebe.

Rumble was founded in 2011 and went on to design a number of free-to-play mobile titles, including Towers & Titans.

The layoffs at Rumble follow another devastating round of layoffs at another Forte studio, Phoenix Labs. After a round of layoffs last December that affected 34 employees across Phoenix Labs’ publishing, HR, IT and shared services divisions, another 140 jobs were cut in May.