Airtight games, the company responsible for the recent game “Murdered: Soul Suspect”, has just closed down their office in Redmond. They have also been selling their office equipment and have left the words “company closing doors” for everyone to see. This close comes just weeks after their newest games release. Murdered: Souls Suspect saw a lot of controversy as to whether the game was good or not, it had become something of a cult favourite, in that it had a nice fanbase, but that was secluded. People compared it to Rockstars “L.A Noire”, although most comparisons were in favour of Rockstars detective game.
Airtight games has been around since 2004, meaning the company has seemingly lasted 10 years, but in those 10 years, they only developed 6 games. Out of those 6, only 3 ever made it to console and one of those 3 was an arcade game. Their other game worth mentioning; “Dark Void” also received a lot of negative press in its time. Receiving mostly bad to average reviews, it seemed apparent that the game was not top quality.
The company executives have not been responding to anyone trying to contact them about the closure. The office equipment in the Redmond HQ has since been sold and the office space remains closed, so it would seem that this is the start if the downfall of the company. There is still no official statement from the company regarding the closure, so it is all speculation at this point, but it seems very obvious what is happening. Previously, the company president Jim Deal did tell IGN that layoffs were necessary and that they were the “natural ebb and flow of game production”. He also noted “Airtight Games is actively seeking partners for exciting upcoming projects." This could mean that the company is looking to join with another partner, and they are simply moving location, let’s hope so, for the sake of the employees.
What do you make of this event? I personally feel that the company hasn’t done enough to stay afloat, I can’t imagine they can continue to stay open after their sales numbers on just one game, especially considering it did not do as well as they had hoped. I think that if they are in fact partnering with someone they may be able to bring some great games with their intuition, but hopefully they are not in charge of the execution, because that way they might become successful!
