Earlier this week Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stated via a message board post that there would be "massive consequences for Stardock's game studio" because of the bug-filled launch of its turn-based strategy game Elemental. Late on Friday, following a news post on Shacknews, Wardell admitted that Stardock has laid off an unknown amount of team members.

Wardell stated that it was hoped that revenues from Elemental would be enough to help fund a project for the team behind Elemental as well as a second game's team, However he states, "that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off." He added that these are the first layoffs since 1998 for the company and that, "It would be great if we can bring as many of these people back over time if the studio can afford it."

In another message board post Wardell gave yet another update on improving Elemental, including enabling multiplayer, improving AI and more.

Update: Our sister site Joystiq reports via an unnamed source that more layoffs at Stardock are coming and will total about 20 people. The source also contradicts Wardell's statements on Elemental's message boards about the reasons for the layoffs, saying, "These people are getting laid off due to poor sales and Stardock's inability to pay back the capital investors that funded Elemental's development."