Developer Jukai Studio, the team behind the poorly received horror title Stray Souls, has announced its closure several months after releasing the game on PS5 and PS4. In a statement, the developer cites the surprise closure of publisher Versus Evil as a contributing factor, in addition to relentless cyber attacks, bullying, and disappointing sales.
Explaining why the company hasn't been as active online lately, Jukai Studio says: "There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that we have fallen victim to cyberbullying, received a poor reception for our debut project, Stray Souls, and were completely unable to sustain the company because of bad sales."
Jukai Studio claims that throughout the development process, a "cyber prosecutor" relentlessly attacked the developer and the publisher Versus Evil staff, even sending unwanted messages to community members. Jukai doesn't elaborate, stating: "The matter is now in the hands of our lawyers, so we cannot speak about it any further."
Jukai Studio posted the sad news on 23rd December, a day after it was announced that its publisher, Versus Evil, would also be closing up shop. Parent company tinyBuild made the call, really setting the tone for 2024 by laying off all the staff mere days away from Christmas (and conveniently after most news outlets had gone on holiday). Versus Evil was responsible for shepherding indies like The Banner Saga and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire to market, amongst many others.
Did you pick up Stray Souls, and if so, what did you think? Prepare for another long year in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 6
In this always connection social media world, if you are a smaller studio, you have got to release a strong product.
If your game is riddled with bugs and basically looks like a cheap cash grab, you're done. Word of mouth spreads a lot quicker. I'm not saying it will work for all games - sometimes an idea simply doesn't resonate with people - but lacking polish shouldn't even be in the conversation.
It sucks because one hand, publishers can be the "bad guy" by simply demanding release despite glaring issues, but on the other, sometimes developers underestimate milestones and don't meet what they promised to the publisher.
With all these closures happening left and right, something needs to change because we now praise games that release in a "complete" or 99% polished state as they are now the exception and not the rule.
I can think of a few "bombs" that would have done a lot better if more time was allowed in the cooker.
Nothing to do with the fact the game was very mediocre then? You can't blame your own failings on the ills of social media etc,etc,etc. Take your medicine and admit your debut effort was poor and move on and make a better product.
@Northern_munkey Mediocre is really overselling it the bugs i saw where really bad.
Good riddance.
I hope the police catch those behind the cyberattacks.
Kinda a shame about Versus Evil - The Banner Saga was fantastic, so I'm forever grateful for their role in bringing that to my home.
Stray Souls, on the other hand, is not fantastic - for Stray Souls, you see, is a load of balls.
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