Midnight Hub shuts down
Swedish studio calls it quits after Lake Ridden sees sluggish sales despite "the best launch imaginable"
Midnight Hub has called it quits. Studio CEO Sara Casen announced on Twitter today that the Malmö, Sweden-based developer is effectively no more and the entire five-person team is looking for work.
The studio was founded in 2015 and released its first title, the narrative first-person puzzle game Lake Ridden, this May. Casen said the game enjoyed "the best launch imaginable," with five days on the Steam front page, 96% positive reviews on the storefront, and coverage from popular streamers like Lirik. (As of this writing, the game's Steam user reviews are 89% positive.)
"But the game has simply sold way less than anyone of us could ever have expected. In fact, I still have a lot more Twitter followers than copies sold of Lake Ridden," said Casen, who at the moment has fewer than 3,200 followers.
Midnight Hub will continue to exist in that the game will continue to be sold and players with problems will receive support, but the full-time staff has been let go.
Casen later added, "Selling games on Steam (and GOG + Humble) in 2018 with almost 200 new games launching each week (and growing) while the average Steam user buys 8 new games/year is...hard."