Developer The Chinese Room is 'Going Dark'

The developer behind the games Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and the newly released So Let Us Melt have revealed that they are going dark for the next few months. 

The announcement comes as a bit of a shock and was made via the companies blog with a long and interesting interview on Eurogamer.net that goes into more detail. The move to "go dark" is not the closure of the studio but more of a hibernation. Co-founder Dan Pinchbeck explains in the blog post that the decision has been made as a result of development, financial and health complications. Because of this move the company has been downsized to only three people with the other members of the company being let go. 

"Lay-offs are never pleasant, particularly when you’re all trying to wrap a game. We did our best to try and help the team secure new positions, and then we all – the whole team – threw everything we had at wrapping the game. It didn’t feel fair to anyone, least of all people who had spent a year working on a project, to have its completion and release overshadowed by news about the studio closing, so we’ve held off on the announcement until we felt we were clear of all of that.£

The blog post continues by adding that this is not the end but "just a pause" and that the remaining team members will be continuing work on The 13th Interior, just now of course at a slower speed. 

"We’re still making The 13th Interior (formerly Total Dark) – me and Andrew and Jess, pushing that forwards until it’s ready to throw a whole team at – and we’ve got plans (and funding) to go into a prototype period on Little Orpheus at the end of the year. So we’ll still be about, just not a fully active development team for the time being."

This is by no means the end of The Chinese Room but the post ends by adding it is the end of a chapter. As the company moves forward with a new path in mind, we can only wait to see what happens next. Here's to you, The Chinese Room.