Sony pulls the plug on Harmony and shuts down Firewalk Studios

Sony has formally killed off Harmony and is shuttering the studio behind the sport. Harmony‘s servers had been taken down simply two weeks after the launch of the aggressive crew shooter from Firewalk Studios after poor gross sales. Firewalk’s sport director Ryan Ellis selected to move himself right into a extra supportive position following Harmony‘s struggles, and Sony had stated it might contemplate its choices for the undertaking. The choice is in.

“After a lot thought, we’ve got decided the most effective path ahead is to completely sundown the sport and shut the studio,” Hermen Hulst of Sony Interactive Leisure’s Studio Enterprise Group stated in a statement at this time. “I need to thank all of Firewalk for his or her craftsmanship, artistic spirit and dedication.” A consultant advised Bloomberg News that Firewalk Studios had 172 staff who will lose their jobs.

The net sport enterprise is brutal, and Harmony could have suffered for its lengthy growth time, which meant different crew shooters had already risen to prominence and outlined gamers’ expectations. Many related video games are free to play and help themselves financially with a battle move or seasonal mannequin. Players could have balked on the $40 price ticket for a brand new property, or perhaps the style was just too crowded for Harmony to muscle in.

Regardless of the causes, at this time’s information marks one other troublesome chapter for the sport growth world. Firewalk Studios is an outlier for having this stage of business failure, nevertheless it’s nonetheless yet one more closure within the business that has seen numerous turbulence in recent times. Layoffs and shutdowns have been a top story in gaming, however a number of of the latest circumstances have been like Firewalk, which was acquired by Sony Interactive Leisure simply final spring. Netflix abruptly shut down its AAA studio final week earlier than the crew had even introduced a undertaking. Microsoft closed three studios from the Zenimax household earlier this yr. As fewer events management a rising share of the video games business, the tolerance for experimentation and slim revenue margins will seemingly shrink too. And this kind of sudden upheaval might turn out to be all of the extra frequent.

Replace, October 29, 2024, 2:52PM ET: Story up to date with further context about Harmony, Firewalk Studios’ employees numbers and broader studio closure traits.