Pixelopus Shut Down by Sony: Concrete Genie Developer Issues Goodbye

After almost a decade, Concrete Genie developer Pixelopus is not any extra. Sony has shut down the studio, because the staff introduced on Twitter.

Sony closes Pixelopus

Pixelopus posted a heartfelt goodbye on its social channels, thanking its tens of millions of gamers as they supported the staff in its endeavor to “make stunning, imaginative video games with coronary heart.”

The San Mateo-based studio by no means formally introduced what it was growing after Concrete Genie shipped in 2019. It was working with Sony Footage Animation on a PlayStation 5 recreation, but it surely wasn’t ever clear what that was outdoors of a “new and thrilling” journey. Since Sony Footage Animation was concerned, some speculated that it was a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse recreation, however that was by no means substantiated. Regardless, that mission will doubtless by no means see the sunshine of day, and it’s potential that it’ll keep a secret in the interim.

Sony has been on an acquisition spree over the previous couple of years, however that is simply one of many closures and adjustments seen in its first-party groups. Japan Studio was reorganized and re-centered round Workforce Asobi in 2021. Manchester Studio was shut down in 2020 with out even releasing a recreation. Evolution Studios and Guerrilla Cambridge had been additionally closed earlier than that in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Pixelopus solely put out two titles in its nine-year existence. Entwined was its first official recreation, and was an atypical on-rails expertise the place gamers use the analog sticks to manage a hen and a fish. Evaluations had been lukewarm for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 4 title, and it at the moment sits at a mean rating of 62.

Concrete Genie, its second and closing recreation, was acquired barely extra positively and settled at a mean rating of 77. It adopted a younger boy named Ash who makes use of a magic paintbrush to color a useless city with the intention to liven it up. It additionally had a mode that supported PlayStation VR.