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Liquid Swords Is Closing After Entering Bankruptcy
Liquid Swords, the independent studio founded by Just Cause co-creator Christofer Sundberg, is closing its doors following bankruptcy proceedings in Sweden.
Sundberg, who co-founded Avalanche Studios before establishing Liquid Swords in 2020, confirmed the closure after reports emerged that employees went at least two months without pay. The Stockholm District Court issued a bankruptcy ruling on October 12, with the studio’s remaining employees affected by the closure.
According to a report from Insider Gaming, around 30 employees had been left waiting for wages before bankruptcy proceedings began. Sweden’s state wage guarantee is expected to cover outstanding salaries for affected staff.
Samson Could Not Keep Studio Afloat
The closure comes just six months after the team released its first game, Samson: A Tyndalston Story. The open-world action game launched on PC in April before moving to consoles, but its initial release was hit by technical problems, bugs, and criticism over some design choices.
Liquid Swords acknowledged the issues at launch and kept rolling out patches to improve the experience. Sundberg has since revealed that Samson performed considerably better following its console release, although those stronger results ultimately came too late to keep the company operating.
“Market conditions and some bad business decisions brought us here,” Sundberg said while confirming the closure, adding that he accepts his share of responsibility for how things unfolded.
Assets Are Up for Sale
As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Liquid Swords is offering its assets for sale, including those connected to Samson, with bids reportedly accepted until October 21. A court-appointed administrator had previously been seeking a buyer that could potentially take over the business or its assets.
Samson could still have some life left. Sundberg said discussions are underway about continued support for the game despite Liquid Swords shutting down, though nothing has been confirmed about who would handle future updates or what form that support would take.
For Liquid Swords, however, the journey ends less than six years after Sundberg founded the studio with ambitions of building games through a smaller, more creatively focused development model.
