Less than a year after the debut game was released.
Developer V1 Interactive, the studio founded by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, has announced that it will close less than a year after the release of its debut game, Disintegration.
Lehto founded V1 Interactive in 2016, and Disintegration – a mixture of science fiction tones of first-person shooting and real-time strategy game set in a futuristic climate change, pandemic and war scenario – launched in June last year.
Unfortunately, the game’s multiplayer component – supported by a real-money in-game store – struggled to find a significant enough audience, and V1 finally decided to end multiplayer support in November, just five months after the game started.
Disintegration – History trailer.
Now, however, in a statement posted on the official V1 Interactive Twitter feed, it was confirmed that the studio itself will be closed.
“We are sad to report that V1 Interactive is officially closing,” wrote the developer. “We want to thank all the talented people at V1, both past and present, who have helped to make the last 5 years wonderful. And a heartfelt thanks to the incredible community that has supported us.”
Lehto expanded the ad by one separate post in his personal Twitter feed, writing that the studio’s priority “has been the welfare of our employees”.
“We have been transparent with them about the state of affairs for months,” he continued, “and we are making that decision now, so they still have enough time to look for new jobs while being supported by our studio.”