A smaller Oni Lion Forge is continuing to publish comic, graphic novels, and games with a staff that has shrunk to 18 from just under 30 people a few months ago, sources close to the situation told ICv2. The most recent reductions were mandated by Polarity Ltd. Vice President - Portfolio Operations and Execution Rick Johnson during a visit to the publisher’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon last week (see "Four More Gone from Oni Press"). An earlier round of mandated reductions, including Publisher James Lucas Jones and VP-Creative and Business Development Charlie Chu took place in June (see "Personnel Changes at Oni Press"). Other reductions have been due to attrition.

St. Louis-based Polarity Ltd., which gained majority ownership of the publisher after Lion Forge and Oni Press merged in 2019 (see "Lion Forge, Oni Press to Merge"), was dissatisfied with its financial performance and is taking these steps to reduce costs, we were told.  At this point, no wholesale changes in how the company is going about publishing are planned; although the scale is likely to be smaller, no plan for how for reducing output has been set. In a statement released in conjunction with last week’s layoffs, the company said as much.

Top remaining management at Oni Lion Forge in Portland are now Associate Publisher Michelle Nguyen and Senior Vice President of Games and Operations Steve Ellis.