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Liquid Swords, the developer behind Samson, has gone bankrupt just six months after its run-based open-city crime sim was released.
As reported by Breakit (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun), a bankruptcy order was issued against the Swedish developer on October 12. According to Breakit, Liquid Swords’ staff—around 30 employees—have gone unpaid for at least two months, and it was those employees who petitioned to have the company declared bankrupt.
Liquid Swords was founded in 2020 by Christofer Sundberg, who previously co-founded Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios and co-directed that series’ first game. Samson was Liquid Swords’ debut title, an open city-crime sim with a distinctive run-based structure, where you play a getaway driver attempting to pay back an enormous mob debt by any means necessary.
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Samson was a difficult project for Sundberg and Liquid Swords. The studio initially intended for it to be a much larger action RPG. But the studio struggled to find a publisher for Samson, with one publisher rejecting Liquid Swords on five occasions. Last year, Liquid Swords ran into funding trouble, laying off half its team as a result. It also radically adjusted how Samson plays—which is how the run-based structure emerged.
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Upon its release in April this year, Samson received mixed reviews, with unfavourable (and somewhat unfair) comparisons to Grand Theft Auto being compounded by bugs and technical issues. In the months since, Liquid Swords has attempted to buff out Samson’s various technical dents, releasing a patch as recently as October 8. Clearly though, that work hasn’t produced a surge in interest in Samson, at least not enough to keep the lights on at Liquid Swords.
What happens to Liquid Swords next is somewhat up in the air. The administrator for the studio—Cirio Law—has put the developer and its assets up for sale, including Samson itself, with the bidding window running open until October 21. As for the affected employees, the bankruptcy now means their unpaid salaries will be covered by the Swedish state wage guarantee.
