Last week, there was a report that Virtuos Studio had shut down their co-development partner Calypte. Publisher Game Developer observed that some employees of Calypte had updated their LinkedIn account stating that the studio had closed its doors. Even then, there was no official word at the time. Now, it appears that the closure was in fact accurate, as Games Industry Biz has confirmed that Virtuos Studio has indeed shut down Calypte, less than a year after they were established.
In a brief statement made to the publisher, Virtuos said that it was an unfortunate choice but one that they ended up going with. “Navigating the dynamic environment requires different approaches while making corresponding adjustments, and this difficult decision was made on the basis of the business performance of Calypte.” the representative said. They also added that this decision will not affect other studios within their umbrella in other locations. This includes their newer Tokyo Studio that was opened just a few weeks ago, as well as the locations in Warsaw, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic.
Virtuos’ main headquarters are based out of Singapore and was founded in Shanghai, China. They are most known for porting several titles to different systems over the years, including the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age to PC. Calypte’s closure is just one of many studios being reduced over the course of the year due to the financial hardships of the extremely volatile and ever-changing world economy. According to the publication, more than 6,000 employees within the game industry have lost their jobs in this year alone. What’s important to note is that these are only the statistics that were made public, meaning that the actual number of developers who have lost employment is likely much higher.