Metal: Hellsinger developer The Outsiders has been closed down by its parent company Funcom, according to studio founder David Goldfarb, but he says he’s determined to press on regardless.
In a Bluesky post, Goldfarb confirms The Outsiders’ closure after ten years of operation. The studio’s shutdown is part of a wider spate of layoffs at Funcom, which the company announced recently (despite latest release Dune: Awakening being Funcom’s most successful game to date).
Goldfarb says he and his studio “survived a near-death studio experience years back when Darkborn was canceled”, referring to a project that was first revealed back in 2015 before being canned in April 2020.
Although Goldfarb says he and his team were hoping to “do something even better” than Metal: Hellsinger this time, “things don’t always go the way you hope”, and The Outsiders has instead been closed down.
However, Goldfarb says this might not be the end for him and his team. He says they’re “not giving up”, and that they “are going to try to continue on in some new form”, asking followers to help out with “business leads, placement for employees, guidance, whatever it is”.
Funcom originally purchased The Outsiders back in 2021, just a few months before acquiring the rights to the Conan IP and the holding group that originally held those rights (along with the rights to the likes of Solomon Kane and Mutant Year Zero, the latter of which uses the Swedish Mutant RPG’s setting).
Unfortunately, The Outsiders is far from the only studio to be closed down by its parent in recent months. Others include Xbox subsidiary and Perfect Dark developer The Initiative, the NetEase-backed outfit T-Minus Zero, and Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Games.
Let’s hope that The Outsiders and Goldfarb manage to find a way to continue on beyond the whims of Funcom. In the meantime, you can re-read our Metal: Hellsinger review to find out just how much we thought the studio’s rhythm FPS rocked.
