Murdered: Soul Suspect Developer Shuts Down: Update

[Karloff]

Murdered: Soul Suspect Developer Shuts Down: Update

Update: Its webpage and Facebook are still up, but Airtight has said via its Twitter feed [https://twitter.com/AirtightGames] that the studio is shut.

"Thanks to all the fans, family, friends and colleagues who supported us and made the last 10 years possible," it Tweets. "Thanks to all of the amazing people who worked on Dark Void, Quantum Conundrum, Murdered, Soul Fjord, Pixld and DerpBike."

"I've been in the game industry 8 years and I'm lucky in the sense that this is my first layoff," Tweets [https://twitter.com/Arrqh?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerandvideogames.com%2F470220%2Fairtight-games-confirms-closure%2F&tw_i=484349248881041408&tw_p=tweetembed] former employee Lee Scheinbeim, who's contracting for Bioware in the short term but will be looking for new work soon. "It's kind of weird how little most gamers know about how devs/publishers work especially in terms of finances."

According to Scheinbeim, layoffs started back in January and many of his former colleagues are still looking for work.

The website's still up, but Airtight's HQ is selling off the office equipment.

Airtight Games, the folks behind other fun titles [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9469-Murdered-Soul-Suspect], may have shut its doors for good. The website's still up and active, but its Redmond, Washington HQ is selling off its office equipment in a blowout all-sales-are-final apocalypse.

The news comes courtesy of GeekWire, which visited the Redmond office only to find a sign on the door saying the company was closing. Airtight laid off 14 employees earlier this year in a move its Jim Deal tried to call "part of the normal ebb and flow of game production," but - as Deal didn't say - studio closures are also part of the normal ebb and flow.

If you're worried about Portal's Kim Swift, you needn't be; she flew the coop in April this year, leaving Airtight for Amazon Game Studios.

Murdered: Soul Suspect launched early last month, to generally Paul Goodman [http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/murdered-soul-suspect] felt it was okay, but nothing special, with lacklustre puzzles.

We've sent a request for comment out to Airtight; I'll let you know if it responds.

Source: GeekWire [http://www.geekwire.com/2014/airtight-games-taken-last-breath/]


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[Lightknight]

I thought they made games that had interesting concepts but were executed poorly. Or... not even poorly. Just average, which can be just as bad when such an interesting concept is at its core that should have provided far more interesting mechanics.

Shame they're going under but I don't think I'll really miss any of the IPs I've seen from them yet. Maybe they'll fall into more capable (stronger development vision) hands and will someday be beloved IPs but if not, that's cool too. It isn't like seeing other studios fall where I'm genuinely concerned with who gets their IPs (turns out that good IPs get purchased by companies with the means and desire to make something out of them).

 

[Trishbot]

Well, as is becoming tragically normal for me to say these days, I hope everyone lands on their feet.

 

[Scars Unseen]

More clickbaiting guys? The way you phrase it makes it sound the lead dev died or something, not the company went under.

OT: Huh, can't really comment, as I never played the game.Good luck to the people though.

Heh... thought the same thing, and I was wondering how one could be uncertain about that sort of thing.

 

[ayvee]

Was it really necessary to phrase this headline so that it sounded like a person had actually (maybe) died?

 

[josemlopes]

Sure its sad that a company goes under but they did have three games and none of them really managed to be better then average, maybe they are going under a bit too soon but I do think that Murdered Souls Suspect really was their big risk where they either would win big or loose big. A smaller game could have been a safer bet for what it seems to be a rather small studio.

 

[Vivi22]

More clickbaiting guys? The way you phrase it makes it sound the lead dev died or something, not the company went under.

Yeah, fuck these misleading headlines guys. I clicked figuring maybe some dude in the industry probably died, and that would be unfortunate. A dev closing it's doors is still kind of unfortunate, but they're not fucking dead. Jesus Christ guys.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Oh this game actually got released? Well then this makes a lot more sense, because I haven't heard anyone playing it nor about it's release so I doubt there was much cashflow going on for them this past month. And when you are already 30+ mil in deep there will not be many bankers waiting around for you to bounce back.

 

[Elfgore]

The wiki page says they just quietly shut down the studio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airtight_Games

I'll admit I have a small interest in Murdered: Soul Suspect, but I can't justify spending fifty bucks on it. Quantum Conundrum is pretty fun though. Anyway, always sad to see a developer with some interesting ideas get shut down.

 

[Grape_Nuts]

Thought someone had died. What a horrible title.

 

[Lightknight]

Thought someone had died. What a horrible title.

OH, I forgot to comment on this. 100% agree that this title is terrible. I mean, wow. Developer May Be Dead? How is that supposed to read that a studio may be gone?

Words mean things.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm the only person who didn't immediately think someone had died, apparently. I guess I'm not as morbid as I thought. This says some really scary things about people who scream "KILL EA".

OT: Daw. It's always sad to see the little guy go under.

 

[Jaden Kazega]

I'm sorry, I don't normally complain about such things, but the title of this article is so misleading it's not even a case of 'haha that's funny'. I know this is typical of escapist articles these days, but this just takes the cake. =/

 

[vagabondwillsmile]

Horribly misleading title. There have been a few off-kilter lately; but this is as inexcusable as the article that misspelled Inafune's name IN THE HEADLINE (which is STILL INCORRECT, by the way) http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132109-Infafune-in-Talks-for-Mighty-No-9-Live-Action-Film. Seriously...

OT: I feel for those who are down and out as a result of the closure. I hope they all find new work quickly or are able to create their own businesses. Good luck to them all.

 

[Olas]

Wait, so nobody actually died? What a misleading title. Here's a tip Escapist. Don't use personification when talking about something as vague as a "developer" which could very well be an individual person.

 

[MarsProbe]

I know I'm repeating what has already be said a number of times, but was that title really necessary. I, like many others, clicked this link believing an actual person had passed away. And here was me thinking "Gallery of the Day" served as the epitome of bad ideas on the Escapist these days. Sort yourselves out.

 

[Lightknight]

Looks like they corrected the title, that's nice. I didn't know they paid attention after posting besides to make updates so that's pretty cool.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Another dev goes bust? Great, just what we need, another house of talent dispersing while EA, Activision, and Ubi continue to gobble up the remaining devs just to shut them down or fuse them together into giant studios the are not even stable enough to make 2 or 3 games before the same thing happens. It's just sad.

Someone really needs to make a chart for the of all the shut down developers, mergers, swapping of key employees, and new startups of major and/or influential game companies for the past 15 years. It would be big, confusing and a pain to make but might show just how crasy this industry is. (I'm not saving others aren't, but the tech side has so many changing companies out there, you might want to snag the trademark on that catchy name for a tech/game company you came up with before someone else does then lets it go bankrupt.)