Possibility Space has shut down, according to former employees.
News of the developer’s demise was posted by a former employee on social media, and confirmed separately to GamesIndustry.biz by another developer impacted by the closure.
The closure comes just weeks after parent company Prytania Media formally shut down its Crop Circle Games studio.
In a post on the Crop Circle website (which has since gone offline), former Prytania Media CEO Annie Delisi Strain said the company had also gone through cuts to its non-developer employees as part of “the successful realignment of the games and staffing at our three other studios.”
While Crop Circle was formally closed in late March, it effectively halted operations in early February when staff reported being let go without severance or being furloughed.
The status of the remaining two Prytania studios, Dawon Entertainment and Fang & Claw, is unknown at present. Attempts to reach Prytania have not been successful, with an email to the company’s account for information requests being returned as undeliverable.
Possibility Space was the first of Prytania Media’s studios, announced in October of 2021 with a stated commitment of “creating world-class games within safe and ethical work environments” and looking to hire people from marginalized communities.
Prytania was founded by Annie Delisi Strain and her husband Jeff Strain, best known for co-founding Undead Labs and ArenaNet.
[UPDATE]: Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter has publicized a note sent to Possibility Space staff from Jeff Strain informing them of the studio’s closure. The statement implies the studio and its publishing partner mutually agreed to cancel the game they were working on after confidential news of that project was leaked to a reporter, and explains that the studio is being closed because of that cancellation.
He said it would take a few days for the studio to determine what it could offer employees in terms of severance.
As for his own plans for the future, Strain said, “As of today, I am stepping away from the game industry to focus on my family and care for Annie.”