The Swedish studio Liquid Swords is shutting down. Founder Christofer Sundberg confirmed the closure in a post on X on October 19, bringing an end to the short-lived team behind the crime action game Samson: A Tyndalston Story.
Sundberg is best known as the creator of Just Cause and a central figure behind Mad Max from his days at Avalanche Studios. According to him, the console versions of Samson performed “far better” than the PC release — but even that wasn’t enough to keep the studio alive.
“Liquid Swords is closing,” Sundberg wrote. “Samson did far better on consoles, but it wasn’t enough to save the studio. I’m proud of our team and what we built. We’re discussing continued support for Samson. We make mistakes, we learn, we rise, we move on. I never give up. More soon.”
Samson reached PC on April 8, 2026, but the launch was rough: the game shipped with technical issues and settled at roughly 55 percent positive across more than 3,200 Steam player ratings. A string of patches followed, and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S editions arrived on September 21. Those console ports sold far better, Sundberg says — yet the extra revenue couldn’t close the financial hole.
The studio’s money problems went deeper than one game’s sales. Liquid Swords laid off about half its staff back in February 2025, and reports say the remaining 27 to 30 employees went unpaid since August. Roughly a week before Sundberg’s announcement, a Stockholm court declared the company bankrupt. Under Swedish law, the unpaid wages are expected to be covered by the state’s wage guarantee.
Chinese publisher NetEase Games is now a major creditor in the bankruptcy after buying a minority stake in Liquid Swords in November 2022 for SEK 220 million (around $20 million). Nobody has said whether NetEase — or anyone else — will take over Samson or the studio’s remaining assets.
For players, nothing changes today: Samson is still on sale on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. But future patches are uncertain. Sundberg says talks about continued support for the game are ongoing, without saying who would do the supporting.
The closure is another bleak headline for mid-sized studios — a veteran-led team, a game that found its audience on consoles, and still not enough to keep the lights on.
Sources: Gamereactor, PlayStation Universe, gagadget
