Scottish indie games publisher Firestoke is “now in the process of closing its doors,” CEO Paul Farley has announced.
In a LinkedIn post on August 6, Farley announced he was “saddened to share” that he’s in the process of closing the publisher behind Falling Out, Bish Bash Bots, and It’s Only Money.
“Despite being on the path towards profitability, the harsh reality is that we ran out of runway and found the current fundraising environment a hurdle we couldn’t overcome,” Farley wrote. “In lieu of a hit game, unfortunately, there wasn’t any way to continue the journey.”
“There are no regrets,” Farley continued. “We signed great games that met our criteria for joyful and innovative fun. The creative and data-driven insights we leaned into supported these choices, and we built a capable small team with excellent internal processes. We won some awards, delighted players across the world, and (mostly) had a good time in the process – but ultimately didn’t get the breakout needed to level up in a very competitive market.”
Firestoke’s CEO said he is “hugely disappointed” and thanked the team for their “hard work and creativity” throughout the publisher’s four-year run.
Right now, the focus for Firestoke is “securing a new home for our portfolio and the development studios behind those games.” This process is “progressing well,” wrote Farley, who then teased that there will be news on this to share “very soon.”
“I’ll also be managing the closing of the company in the best possible way – although Firestoke is winding down, our values of transparency, honesty, and fairness still apply.”
Firestoke is one of several game publishers to close its doors or wind down over the last couple of years. In September last year, indie publisher Merge Games closed downafter 15 years, while Humble Games underwent a “restructure” in July of the same year.
However, we’ve also seen several new indie publishers launching this year alone, including Artex, Lyrical Games , and The CoLab.