Samson developer Liquid Swords reportedly declared bankrupt in Sweden
Breakit reports around 30 staff went unpaid before a 12 October bankruptcy order; the state wage guarantee should cover salaries and a sale is under way.
Swedish studio Liquid Swords, developer of the crime action game Samson, has reportedly been declared bankrupt. The Swedish outlet Breakit, as relayed by PC Gamer and Eurogamer, says a bankruptcy order was issued on 12 October, a date Eurogamer describes as only thought to be correct. The studio has not been quoted in the coverage we were given.
According to Breakit, the roughly 30 employees had gone without pay for at least two months, and PC Gamer reports that Breakit says the staff themselves applied to have the company declared bankrupt. With the order in place, their outstanding salaries should be paid through Sweden’s state wage guarantee.
The administrator, Cirio Law, has reportedly listed the studio and its assets for sale, Samson included. Bids can be submitted until 21 October.
Samson: A Tyndalston Story was Liquid Swords’ first game. It came out on PC on 8 April and reached PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on 21 September. Reviews were mixed, with players and critics pointing to bugs and performance problems. The studio kept patching the game, most recently on 8 October, according to PC Gamer.
Why it matters
Christofer Sundberg founded Liquid Swords in 2020 after co-founding Avalanche Studios, the developer of the Just Cause series. Samson was a troubled project. PC Gamer reports that the team first planned a much larger action RPG, that one publisher turned it down five times, and that half the staff were let go last year amid funding problems. The run-based structure came out of a major redesign after those cuts.
The closure adds to a run of recent industry job losses. Eurogamer notes that on 22 September Xbox confirmed another 268 layoffs and shifted Rare and World’s Edge into Activision, which is now set to make the next Halo. The same day Xbox said it had opened consultation on closing Ninja Theory, after two deals involving that studio collapsed. Eurogamer also says Supermassive Games appears to have shed more than 70 people earlier in October.
What we don’t know yet
Neither source says who might buy the studio or Samson, or what would happen to the game and its console versions if no buyer appears. The bankruptcy order itself has not been confirmed by Liquid Swords in the material available, and the exact date remains an estimate in Eurogamer’s account.
Sources
This story was compiled from the sources above with AI assistance and checked against them before publishing. How we work.
