Developers with upcoming projects due to be published by Annapurna Interactive have reacted to the news of its collapse, most of them to say their project is currently unaffected by the situation.
Remedy’s communications director Thomas Puha reacted on social media yesterday, to clarify that the Finnish studio’s deal for Control 2 and its TV projects were with Annapurna Pictures and not the firm’s video games branch, seemingly meaning they are unaffected. The studio is self-publishing Control 2, with Annapurna’s involvement purely on the funding side here.
Elsewhere, The Stanley Parable developer Davey Wreden confirmed that his next project with new studio Ivy Road, Wanderstop, is also not impacted.
“Just for the folks asking, we are 100% okay,” he tweeted. “Nothing’s gonna stop us from getting Wanderstop out the door very soon.”
The title was revealed earlier this year during the 2024 edition of the summer games showcases.
Meanwhile, The Artful Escape studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, which also unveiled latest project Mixtape this summer, simply posted: “Appreciate all those who reached out. Mixtape continues.”
Matt Newell, the developer behind the upcoming Annapurna-published Lushfoil Photography Sim, posted a cautious statement saying that they “can assume at this stage that Lushfoil Photography Sim will be unaffected, given that the game itself is mostly complete.”
They added that they would keep their community updated, continuing: “But this news is definitely a loss, the Annapurna Interactive team were great to work with and gave the project a lot of love.”
It’s unclear at this stage what will happen to Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth, which was being developed internally by Annapurna Interactive – a first for the company.
The majority of the publisher’s team resigned yesterday after talks with its parent company over its independence collapsed. Bloomberg sources told the publication that Annapurna president of interactive and new media Hector Sanchez said to developers that the company would honour its existing contracts.
In addition to the titles listed above, eight more upcoming projects are due to be published by Annapurna: Blendo Games’ Skin Deep, Dinogod’s Bounty Star, Furcula’s Morsels, Glass Revolver’s We Kill Monsters, Great Ape Games’ The Lost Wild, Messhof’s Ghost Bike, Third Shift’s Forever Ago, and Uvula’s To a T.