Job News

Updated: Gumi shutters studios in Canada, Sweden, Germany, Austin and Hong Kong

First to try. First to fail. First to recover

Updated: Gumi shutters studios in Canada, Sweden, Germany, Austin and Hong Kong

[UPDATE: While initally thought only to affect the Vancouver studio, Gumi has confirmed that it'll no longer be operating out of Canada, Sweden, or Germany, with studios in Austin and Hong Kong also being closed down.

It's notably the Western studios that are most affected, likely a strategic decision. Gumi's operations will continue at the Japan HQ, China, France, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and San Francisco.]

Living up to its "First to try. First to fail. First to recover" mantra, Japanese publisher Gumi has shuttered its Vancouver studio after only 18 months, during which time it shipped no games.

Opened in November 2014, in the wake of Brave Frontier's worldwide success, the company's motto at the time was "think global, act local" - meaning an aggressive focus on hiring the best local talent in a number of territories.

"By working closely with the B.C. government and opening a dedicated studio in Vancouver, we are able to execute on our vision of a worldwide company with a truly local development approach for each game we ship," said AJ Redmer, former VP of Western Studios, at the time.

Bailing out

But fast forward to April 2016, and the studio's suffered an untimely demise without a single game to its name.

Exactly what went wrong at the studio remains to be seen, but Gumi - which cut 100 jobs in Japan in March 2015 - has been rebooting itself with a $50 million fund for investing in VR content. 

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

 


Features Editor

Matt is really bad at playing games, but hopefully a little better at writing about them. He's Features Editor for PocketGamer.biz, and has also written for lesser publications such as IGN, VICE, and Paste Magazine.