Dreadnought developer Six Foot has laid off one-third of its staff following a lacklustre launch for the big ship battler.

Game Informer first reported that Six Foot was attempting to balance the books by laying off a significant portion of its staff.

COO Christian Svensson later confirmed that it had offered either redundancy or unpaid leave to 45 employees, who could later return if Dreadnought turned out to be a success

A lower-than-expected performance after launching on Steam on the 14th suggests that success doesn’t appear to be coming for the free-to-play battleship brawler. Six Foot has promised to help support redundant staff as they look for new positions.

“We regrettably confirm a reduction of about a third of our game dev workforce,” said Svensson. “We’re continuing to make available the full resources of our company to try to help those affected and their families land on their feet as quickly as possible.”

Unlike a certain recent studio closure, however, it appears management kept staff in the loop surrounding a growing financial crisis.

“In August, Six Foot informed its staff of the upcoming potential for major changes to our company structure, including continued development of Dreadnought as a live product," said Svensson.

“Everyone on the games team was given the option to stay on and continue working or begin searching for other opportunities with the full support of the company and the aid of our staffing team, while still receiving pay in the interim. New updates on the company’s status were delivered to the full team every two weeks from there.”