Summary
In a perfect world, as long as a developer makes good games, it should be able to stay afloat, right? Unfortunately, the games industry doesn’t work that way. You need money to stay alive, and even if a project is successful, there could be numerous other factors that influence the decision to close the studio down.
Even with these studios gone, their great games will never be forgotten. What’s important to note is that studios that have closed but since re-established themselves, like Lucasfilm Games, formerly LucasArts, will not be counted here.
10Looking Glass Studios
Creators Of Some Of The Best PC Games Ever Made
The ‘90sto the mid-2000swas the golden era of PC gaming, and debatably, the greatest PC developer of this time was Looking Glass Studios. Their pedigree is simply unmatched with all-time great PC titles like System Shock 1 and 2 and the first two Thief games.
To this day, the gameplay of Thief feels incredibly fresh compared to other stealth titles. Even their earlier games, like Ultima Underworld, broke new ground in the gaming space, even though it hasn’t aged as well as others. Unfortunately, due to poor sales and many publishing deals that fell through, Looking Glass Studios closed in 2000.
9Ion Storm
Deus Ex - Need We Say More?
Ion Storm comprised two development teams, Ion Storm Dallas and Austin. The former made Daikatana, but the other team created one of the greatest games ever made: Deus Ex. It’s an absolute masterpiece and its gameplay will hold up forever. The sequel, Invisible War, was also pretty good but was neglected at launch because it couldn’t compare to the original.
Ion Storm Austin’s final game was Thief: Deadly Shadows, an excellent way to cap off the Thief trilogy with great levels and a solid new addition to toggle between first and third-person. Ion Storm Dallas closed first, in 2001, but Austin stayed around to finish its final few projects before closing in 2005.
8Clover Studio
A Studio That Wasn’t Given Any Second Chances
After the success of Viewtiful Joe, the team behind it transformed into Clover Studio, the creator of some of thebiggest gems in Capcom’s library. It, of course, made Viewtiful Joe 2 an amazing sequel, but its best game has to be Okami. It’s a one-in-a-lifetime game that can never be replicated again, with its great characters, level design, and beautiful art style.
Too bad Okami ended up being a flop, but God Hand launched the same year, and it’s one of the best action games of the decade. However, just two days after its American launch, Capcom announced the studio’s closure, throwing in the towel early, it seems. Fortunately, many at the studio eventually formed PlatinumGames, and the rest is history.
7Sierra Entertainment
The King Of Adventure Games
Back in the ’80s and ’90s, two developers dominated the adventure game space: LucasArts and Sierra On-Line. While LucasArts generally receives more retrospective acclaim, Sierra On-Line came first with the game-changing first entry into the King’s Quest series. Its titles also tend to havefar more replayabilitydue to the scoring system, and the humor was just as good.
Both companies hit their stride in the ’90s, with Sierra launching great titles like King’s Quest 6 and Phantasmagoria 2. As that happened, however, adventure games declined heavily in popularity, killing off most of Sierra’s big cash cows. Most of the development staff was laid off in 1999, but Sierra remained a publisher until being dissolved in 2008.
6Midway Games
Mortal Kombat!
Midway is one of those companies that just screams gaming, and it makes sense, considering the studio was owned by two pinball manufacturers in its history. That’s why there’s developer overlap, with people like Ed Boon and Steve Ritchie working on both pinball tables and Midway arcade games. Midway’s classic arcade library is virtually unmatched with Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and the Cruis’n series.
As time moved on, the developer struggled more and more, with the only thing consistently doing well being its premier series, Mortal Kombat. Even that couldn’t help it stay afloat, as after Midway’s final game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the developer filed for bankruptcy and shut down in 2010.
5Silicon Knights
Criminally Underrated
One of the more underrated studios in the late ’90s and into the 2000s was Silicon Knights. Developers of the PlayStation 1 classic Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the studio would go on to make its most famous title, Eternal Darkness, on the GameCube. Agreat Lovecraftian horror gamefor its time that was like no other, Eternal Darkness is still fondly remembered today.
Silicon Knights also made the Metal Gear Solid 1 remake titled The Twin Snakes on the GameCube, which was a fun alternative, though not as good as the original PS1 version. After this, the studio faced numerous troubles, including losing a lawsuit over Too Human’s usage of Unreal Engine 3 and X-Men: Destiny flopping hard, resulting in the studio shutting down in 2014.
4Visceral Games
In Space, No One Can Hear You Get Laid Off
By far, the most well-known series to come from Visceral Games is Dead Space, but the studio had more to it than that. Before its big horror title in space, Visceral made several quality licensed games, including Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The Godfather,and the criminally underrated2007 Simpsons Game. Dead Space changed everything, however.
It took inspiration from sci-fi horror films of yesteryear and Resident Evil 4 and turned it into a truly special experience. The sequels were also a spooky, fun time, but they underperformed commercially. After finishing Battlefield Hardline, Visceral worked on a single-player Star Wars game that sadly got cancelled, and the studio was shuttered.
3Sony Japan Studio
The Creators Of Some Huge PlayStation Gems
It’s weird that, when recommending exclusive PlayStation hidden gems, some of the biggest are made by the same studio. Japan Studio housed multiple dev teams, including Team Asobi, who made Astro’s Playroom. Another famous game by Japan Studio was Knack, but the best team under them that stood around the longest was Team Gravity.
With studio head Keiichiro Toyama, creator of Silent Hill, the developer first worked on the Siren series, with Siren: Blood Curse being one of the best horror games of the generation. Gravity Rush 1 and 2 are also stellar and must-play PlayStation exclusives. After Keiichiro Toyama and others left in 2020, Japan Studio was shut down and largely merged into Team Asobi one year later. This wouldn’t be the only time something like this would happen.
2Volition
The Ruler Of The Street Saints
One of the first developers that comes to mind regarding double-A level games has to be Volition. It’s made plenty of awesome titles, like the Saints Row games, the Red Faction series, and the brutally fun 2005 Punisher game. The best title to use as an example of what Volition does with its projects is Saints Row 2. Launching in 2008 after Grand Theft Auto 4, Saints Row 2 gave the people what they wanted.
The game had more colorful graphics, a more variant color palette, and more fun destructive-type missions to play. You didn’t have to buy jeans to impress your girlfriend to continue the story here. Sadly, after two notable flops in Agents of Mayhem and the Saints Row reboot, along with Embracer Group’s Saudi Arabia deal falling through, the company shuttered.
1Tango Gameworks
Gone Far Too Soon
A favorite developer for many among the sea of Xbox studios was Tango Gameworks. The Evil Within 2 was an incredible open-world horror game; Ghostwire: Tokyo improved immensely when it launched on Xbox, but Hi-Fi Rush blew away all expectations. Despite Starfield being the big triple-A Xbox exclusive of 2023, Hi-Fi Rush got more critical acclaim, and deservedly so.
After founder Shinji Mikami left in 2023, once again, Tango shut down a year later, despite Hi-Fi Rush being a success. In reality, Microsoft needs to earn that 70 billion dollars back from the Activision Blizzard purchase, and with Tango wanting to hire up for their next project, it was a prime target for cost cutting.
