In a blog post equal parts angry and wrenching, Belgian-based studio Tale of Tales have announced that they no longer intend to produce video games.
‘It’s hard to deal with this intense feeling of disappointment in a context of glowing reviews and compliments and encouragement from players.’ reads the post written by both Michaël and Auriea, the duo behind Tale of Tales. ‘A small group of people clearly deeply appreciates what we do and we curse the economic system that doesn’t allow us to be pleased with that.’
The two developers divide the blame squarely between themselves and the PR studio hired to promote Sunset, simply stating that they were all wrong about the game. In the month since its May 21 release, Sunset has sold only 4,000 copies — and a little over half of these were to Kickstarter backers. With rising debt and dwindling arts grants, Tale of Tales aren’t in any position to wait for the long tail of sales that digital distribution often brings. The studio, also known for decidedly unorthodox games like The Path, Endless Forest, and The Graveyard, admits they are somewhere in the realm of $40,000 in debt.
The decision to, er, sunset the studio’s game development ambitions does not mean that Tale of Tales is finished, however. Right before signing off, the blog posts states, ‘Creativity still burns wildly in our hearts but we don’t think we will be making videogames after this. And if we do, definitely not commercial ones.’
Published: Jun 22, 2015 07:34 pm