The studio founded by the creator of State of Decay has shut down, with the founder blaming leaks to the gaming press for the closure.
Jeff Strain, who founded Possibility Space in 2021, told his entire staff last week that he would be closing the studio immediately.it's by email Obtained by Polygon labor reporter Nicole Carpenterconfirmed an April 12 LinkedIn post by a studio employee about the sudden closure.
In an email to staff, Strain specifically cited an inquiry from Kotaku investigative writer Ethan Gatch as the first domino that would lead to the studio's demise. According to Gatti, Strain is managing Crop Circle Games, a sister studio to Possibility Space under the Prytania Media label, which Strain also founded in 2021 with his wife Annie DeLisi Strain. He said he has contacted them to discuss termination.
“I was appalled to see non-public information about the Vonnegut project,” Strain said, referring to the code name for the work in development, as well as “disclosures of publishing partners and details of our business and financial relationships, as well as details of inside information.” clarified,” he wrote. [profit and loss] All internal meetings and discussions are confidential. '' Gatch said Strain received those documents from someone within Possibility Space.
“It was shocking to see members of our internal team under non-disclosure agreements involved in something like this,” Strain said. He flew to meet with Possibility Space's publishing partners in person, but was told they were “not willing to invest the additional resources needed to complete the game,” so he decided to cancel. mutually agreed upon. [project] Vonnegut. ”
All Possibility Space employees were subsequently terminated in accordance with the jurisdiction's labor laws. Strain said he has hired a law firm to “oversee the downsizing of the studio,” and that its representatives will be in contact with employees to discuss Possibility Space's remaining obligations.
Whatever Kotaku was working on, the story wasn't published. Crop Circle Games closed in February and furloughed employees. The Verge reports that Annie DeLisi Strain also addressed Gatti's report in a statement posted on the studio's website, which has since been deleted. “I took medical leave this winter and stepped down as CEO,” she said. “I don't know what Mr. Gatch's article is about, but as a rare female CEO in the gaming industry, there is no guarantee that my personal health struggles will continue.” His article doesn't cover it. ”
In an email announcing Possibility Space's closure, Jeff Strain said he was “stepping away from the gaming industry to focus on my family and taking care of Annie.”
Some former employees objected to Strains' rapidly escalating version of events involving both crop circles and Possibility Space. In a LinkedIn post, Jennifer Crasing, a former content designer at the studio, called Jeff Strain a “fraud” and said the studio's leadership “has failed us morally, ethically and financially. “I let him do it,” he said.
What was Possibility Space working on?
Possibility Space's “Project Vonnegut” hasn't been announced, so it's hard to say. As Mr. Strain said in an email, there was a publishing arrangement in place with the publisher, or at least some agreement with the publisher that was worth dropping all the flights to try to mend the relationship. But it's odd that a studio executive would run out the door to do damage control on a story that might depict that relationship and hasn't been released yet.
Jeff Strain co-founded ArenaNet, the makers of GuildWars, in 2000. In 2009 he founded Undead Labs, and the same studio released his zombie apocalypse survival adventure State of Decay in 2013. Undead Labs was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, about four months later. State of Decay 2 is now available. Since then, he has become one of several design houses in the Xbox family, developing first-party titles that launch on the same day on his Xbox Game Pass service for consoles.
Featured image by Ideogram
