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Kickstarter success Grin has closed down, dismantling its team and filing for bankruptcy.
The studio’s closure follows the poor performance of Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries, a dark take on the story of Red Riding Hood that raised $72,139 via Kickstarter.
However, while the crowdfunding campaign was successful, the game’s commercial performance failed to meet expectations. Low ratings for Volume 1 of the game means that work on Volume 2 has ceased, and any publishers interested in bringing the game to wider markets have now withdrawn. Grin is unable to self-publish future games.
“Once the sales numbers began rolling in, the consequences of our beautiful adventure started to become painfully clear,” wrote founder Wim Wouters on the game’s Kickstarter page.
“This is not just the end of Woolfe, but the end of the studio that I founded and nurtured through ups and downs the past 13 years.”
Wouters apologised to Kickstarter backers, who will now not receive their promised rewards. He explains that while many of the rewards are ready – or close to it – the studio “has literally no money whatsoever to pay for stamps, let alone print the artbooks and DVD cases”.
The Woolfe IP, assets and source code is now for sale. Studios interested should contact Cathérine Lannoy via c.lannoy@etrevia.be.
