The Chinese Room, developer of Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, has announced it is ‘going dark’.
Creative Director Dan Pinchbeck announced that the company was going dark for a few months and announced that “this is a pause, not an end”, in a recent statement. This move seems to be related to a heath scare that Pinchbeck suffered this year. From the sounds of things, Pinchbeck has taken a step back and decided that he needs to take a look at things.
The Chinese Room have laid off all their staff and Pinchbeck, along with Jessica Curry, is still working on their next title, The 13th Interior. This latest news comes following the release of The Chinese Room’s latest title, a VR game called So Let Us Melt. It seems that the combination of heath, finance and stress has all led to this decision.
It would seem that Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry made a hit game in Dear Esther and became a game studio overnight and have struggled with that pressure. Pinchbeck stated that the pair want to figure out how to be creatives, not managing directors, and it is an unfortunate reality that one can rarely be both. To end the statement,
Pinchbeck said; “Is it the end of The Chinese Room? No, I don’t think so. But it’s the end of a chapter, and we hope you can all be patient with us whilst we figure out what happens next.”
Let’s hope that The Chinese Room founders can find some middle ground and create profitable, yet artistic titles.
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