Samson developer Liquid Swords goes bankrupt six months after release

[Kyle0]

Liquid Swords, the Swedish studio behind the action game Samson, has been declared bankrupt only six months after the game launched. Kotaku reports that a court order was issued on 12 October. The studio had around 30 staff, and reports suggest many of them had not been paid since August

The studio was founded by Christofer Sundberg, who previously co-founded Avalanche Studios, the team behind Just Cause. That pedigree raised expectations when Liquid Swords was set up. Samson was pitched as a gritty open world action game with a strong focus on combat and atmosphere

Sadly, the game did not land with critics. It sits at a Metacritic score of 51, and sales do not appear to have been strong enough to keep the studio going. For an independent studio of this size, a single disappointing launch can be fatal, especially without a big publisher behind it

Cirio Law has been appointed as the bankruptcy administrator, and bids for the company's assets close on 21 October. That means the rights to Samson and any work on future projects could end up with another company. It will be interesting to see whether anyone wants the IP

The worst part of stories like this is always the staff. Working for weeks without pay while hoping things turn around must have been incredibly stressful. Hopefully the talented people there find new roles quickly, because Sweden has a strong games industry that can use them

Did anyone here play Samson? And is it harder than ever for mid sized studios to survive one weak launch?

Samson Developer And Publisher Liquid Swords Goes Bankruptkotaku.com