Nog meer slecht nieuws wat betreft Nederlandse game studios. Eerder dit jaar ontsloeg Sony een groep ontwikkelaars bij Horizon-ontwikkelaar Guerrilla Games. Afgelopen maand ontsloeg KeokeN Interactive, alle werknemers om vanaf null de studio weer op te kunnen bouwen. KeokeN werd bekend door de games Deliver Us Mars en Deliver Us the Moon.
Nu laat een andere Nederlandse ontwikkelhuis namelijk Paladin Studios weten dat het de deuren gaat sluiten. Paladin Studios werd met name bekend door de games Nikko RC Racer, Stormbound en Amazing Katamari Damacy. Wegens een slechte financiële situatie worden niet alleen alle werknemers ontslagen, maar de studio gaat helemaal sluiten. De games van Paladin Studios zullen wel blijven bestaan en verkocht worden op meerdere platforms.
(Tekst gaat verder onder de video)
Volledige statement Paladin Studios over het moeten sluiten van de deuren
“Yesterday, our quest came to an end, and we have closed the studio.
For almost 19 years, we have poured our hearts and souls into creating games that make you smile. Starting as a bootstrapped mini studio in 2005, we followed the twists and turns of the game industry and slowly but steadily found our place in it. Over these years, the studio peaked at 55 people. As of this writing we were 45 people, each and every one of them a brilliant mind and kind heart, and together they truly created magic. We also worked with incredible partners such as Nintendo, Apple Arcade, Netflix, Zeptolab, Bandai Namco, and many others. Last but not least, our games are being played by millions of people, earning prestigious awards and bringing smiles to people all over the world. This was a dream come true – in fact, for us, it was THE dream come true.
However, over the past months, we unfortunately failed to land enough work to cover our burn-rate. Yesterday we hit an inflection point for our financial security. Going further with the current outlook would have been an irresponsible decision that would have likely caused insolvency. We have therefore taken this step to ensure a proper winding down, where all employees are given proper severance and the studio remains debt-free.
Please reach out if you have any open vacancies for design, programming, 2D art, 3D art, production, QA, management or support staff – all skills are here, and these people are among the finest in the industry.
Our existing games will stay alive, and we intend to keep providing (technical) support for them in the future.
We want to thank the team, our partners, and our fellow industry colleagues for all the good times. It truly was a wild ride, and we wouldn’t want to have missed it for the world.
Thank you for being part of our journey. ❤️
Derk & Team Paladin”
