Pixelmage Games, founded by former head of Daybreak Games/Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley is shutting down. Along with Pixelmage Games’ shutdown, its debut title, an “open-world roguelike fantasy action RPG” called Hero’s Song is being refunded to all players who bought the game. The game was canceled less than two months after its initial release through Steam Early Access.
Smedley tweeted the news to fans of Hero’s Song:
The tweet has a link to Pixelmage Games’s website, which is now a single page that informs players of the company’s and Hero’s Songs’ shutdown. The website also gives details to how refunds will be handled. Indiegogo buyers should email refunds@pixelmagegames.com with details of which package he or she bought and Steam buyers should go through the regular channels to getting a refund through the company’s website.
“It’s with a heavy heart that I have to report that Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down and we have ceased development on Hero’s Song,” the message reads. “For the last year, our team has worked tirelessly to make the game we’ve dreamed about making, and with your support, and the support of our investors, we were able to get the game into Early Access. Unfortunately sales fell short of what we needed to continue development. We knew going in that most startups don’t make it, and as an indie game studio we hoped we would be the exception to that rule, but as it turned out we weren’t.”
“Thank you for all the support you showed us,” the message continues. “We’re sorry things worked out the way they did, but we feel strongly that we gave it our all and we’re proud of how far we came with the game. The fact that we weren’t able to finish the game is painful, but the journey of making Hero’s Song has been a great experience for us and we’re just sorry we couldn’t take it all the way.
Hero’s Song was original started as kickstarter, but it was canceled because of a slow start. It only raised $137,000 in one week and indications were that it wouldn’t reach its $800,000 goal.