Shipyard Games, a Finnish mobile developer supported by Clash of Clans' Supercell, has officially shut down following a lack of investments.
The announcement of the closure was made by CEO and co-founder Andreas Wedenberg in a post on the studio's Discord server dated May 13, 2024.
He said that the situation of the company was critical, noting that they have been running out of money and their previous investor did not want to continue supporting them.
Shipyard Games Shuts Down
This was a decision that the studio's investor made despite how promising Shipyard Games' Wizards & Kingdoms GO was. Wedenberg said that this meant that they were forced to shut down the studio in as soon as two months.
The executive also noted that the game will no longer receive any more updates and due to not being able to pay for the servers anymore, Wizards & Kingdoms GO will soon be taken offline, according to GamesIndustry.
Wedenberg then concluded his message that they sincerely appreciated the entire community for all of the help that they gave. He also thanked players for their amazing feedback, bug reports, memes, tutorials, and kind words for the team.
He also expressed his deepest apologies to the community that the team is no longer able to finish the game that players deserve. Wedenberg noted that unfortunately, dreams often need money to become reality and they simply ran out.
Shipyard Games' imminent closure comes as the studio became one of the first promising geolocation pioneers and attracted investment from even Supercell.
However, the company slipped away without fanfare and barely even a blip on the radar, said PocketGamer.
Wedenberg also said that the team at the studio always tried to develop new and inventive geolocation games. They worked to combine different genres with a geolocation twist at its center.
Unfortunate Developments in the Video Games Industry
He noted that after experimenting many times, they finally learned and developed an advanced technology that they were able to use for any geolocation game that they wanted to make.
Wizards & Kingdoms GO was described as a very promising game that had a fast-growing and passionate community.
The studio's closure comes as the latest in a series of unfortunate developments within the video games industry. Recently, Game Informer, the longest-running US gaming magazine, announced its closure after more than three decades.
In a statement, the magazine said that they were honored to have been able to share an incredible journey with supporters.
The publication was running from the early days of pixelated adventures up until today's immersive virtual reality technology, according to GameDeveloper.
