V1 Interactive, the studio behind the real-time strategy and first-person shooter hybrid game Disintegration, is shutting down after five years.
The studio announced via Twitter today, explaining that, after five years, the studio will officially close. V1’s president, Marcus Lehto, confirmed the news in a separate Tweet and explained the reasoning behind the shutting down now.
“We’ve been transparent with [our employees] about the state of things for months,” explained Lehto. “And are making this decision now, so they still have ample time to search for new jobs while being supported by our studio.”
Lehto is one of the Halo universe’s co-creators and describes himself as “Father of the Master Chief.” He led the studio of around 30 employees and was the game director behind V1’s first and only published game, the sci-fi FPS Disintegration. It was released in June 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Disintegration wasn’t a hugely successful attempt at marrying two genres. It failed to find an audience, and in November 2020, the online servers for the game’s multiplayer were shut down only five months after the game’s release.
Game companies and publishers don’t have the best track record for this kind of stuff. Just last month, Google shut down all of its Stadia game dev studios with no notice and just a week after praising them on their progress. And back in 2018, Telltale shocked its employees when it shut down abruptly, laying off over 200 people with no warning or time to prepare. So while it’s still disappointing to see a studio that’s filled with creative and talented people shut down, I’m happy to see an attempt by the folks running the company to make this period of shutdown as pain-free as possible for its staff.
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