Canadian game studio Hothead Games has closed its doors.
Hothead president and CEO, Ian Wilkinson, broke the news on Linkedin and said the company “had a good run” but has now filed for bankruptcy. It’s unclear how many people the studio employed at the time of its closure.
The Vancouver-based studio was established in 2006 by former Radical Entertainment staffers Steve Bocska, James Ceraldi and Joel DeYoung. Initially, Hothead focused on developing and publishing digital console and PC titles, but eventually pivoted to focus on creating free-to-play mobile games (with mixed results).
“We threw all kinds of small, inexpensive games at the wall to see what stuck. Surprise surprise, surprise nothing stuck,” wrote Wilkinson, looking back on that period.
“So, we went back to our roots and created sports games under the Big Win brand and shooting games under the Rivals at War (RAW) brand and eventually the Kill Shot brand. These series of games were very successful–we finally discovered lightning in a bottle. Those were the most successful years for Hothead.”
Over the past year, Hothead had been working on a playable prototype for a triple-A project. Wilkinson said the studio hoped to secure contracts with different publishers so it could develop mobile, PC, and console versions of the game, but explained that process took longer than expected.
“Unfortunately, it took far longer than we expected to secure contracts for these versions of the game,” he said. “They were both ready to close two weeks ago and then the mobile publisher pulled out due to a change in strategy. Two weeks later the console publisher also pulled out. At that point our only remaining option was bankruptcy.”
Looking back on Hothead’s legacy, Wilkinson said it wasn’t the games that made the studio-but rather its people. “Hothead was chock full of incredibly, smart, talented, loyal, hardworking but mostly just really nice people. People that had your back at work and outside of work. Many of us made lifelong friends at Hothead,” he continued.
“We grew up together, we laughed, we cried, we celebrated, we grieved, we found partners, we started families. I had the privilege of working with so many wonderful people at Hothead over the years.
“Hopefully, this won’t be the last time you hear from us. We still believe we are destined to work together again and continue to do great things. But even if that doesn’t happen, I am a better person for working at Hothead and I consider myself blessed to have spent 16 years shoulder to shoulder with my fellow Hotheads.”