Netflix has closed down Squid Game: Unleashed developer Boss Fight Entertainment, just three years or so after acquiring the developer.
That’s according to Game Developer, as well as Boss Fight CEO David Rippy, who confirmed the studio’s closure via his LinkedIn account over the weekend, describing news of the developer’s shutdown as “rough”.
Netflix’s decision to shut down Boss Fight might seem a little strange given that it’s only been three years since the studio was acquired. Not only that, but, as Rippy says in his post, the studio had a bona fide hit on its hands with Squid Game: Unleashed, which “hit #1 in 26 countries”.
Neither Netflix nor Boss Fight gave an official reason for the studio’s closure, but Game Developer “understands” that it’s all down to new Netflix games president Alain Tascan, who took over from Mike Verdu back in November last year.
Per Game Developer, Tascan’s goal with Netflix’s gaming division is to focus things more on “party games, children’s titles, and narrative experiences” (that’s Game Developer’s wording, not Tascan’s), and Boss Fight’s shutdown is a direct result of that paradigm shift.
Despite Boss Fight’s shutdown, Squid Game: Unleashed will apparently still receive support from Netflix, so if you’re a fan of the game, you don’t need to worry about it going away anytime soon.
This is the second studio Netlfix has (apparently) closed down in the last twelve months or so; last October, it was reported that the streaming giant had shuttered its all-star Team Blue development outfit, which counted Overwatch and Halo alumni among its number.
Despite these shutdowns, Netflix is going all-in on gaming adaptations, with its Devil May Cry series already having been renewed for a second season and its long-gestating Assassin’s Creed series finally going ahead.
We’ll have to wait and see what Rippy and his fellow Boss Fight alumni do after the shutdown of the studio, but we may not hear from them for a while, if Rippy’s words are to be believed; he says he and his co-executives will “take a little breather” before moving on.
