liquid swords is closing up shop, samson couldn't save them

So the devs behind Samson, Liquid Swords, are done. Sundberg confirmed it after the bankruptcy reports came out. The console version of Samson did way better than the PC launch back in April, but it still wasn't enough to keep the studio alive.

All 27 people there are getting let go. Apparently they hadn't been paid in two months, though Swedish law covers those wages so at least that's something. Sundberg posted about it saying he's proud of the team and they're discussing continued support for Samson. He said "We make mistakes, we learn, we rise, we move on. I never give up."

I remember when Samson came out. It was pitched as this open-world crime game that wasn't just trying to be GTA, had its own story and vibe. But the jank was real, and now the studio is gone after one release. Sundberg co-founded Avalanche, the Just Cause people, so he's been around. He had this whole "zero-nonsense" studio philosophy, no crunch, no useless meetings, no unnecessary stakeholders. Sounds great on paper but clearly didn't work out in practice.

As someone waiting on GTA 6, this hits a little different. Rockstar has the resources to take forever and polish everything. Smaller studios trying to make open-world crime games are basically playing on nightmare difficulty. Samson wasn't a GTA killer, but it was another voice in the genre, and now that voice is gone.

Sundberg is also known for some pretty bleak takes on the state of gaming, so I'm sure he'll have more to say. But for now, Samson is Liquid Swords' only game, and that's that.

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Source: GameSpot · Curated content.