Vatra Games may be closing its doors

I'm a college student with a huge passion for gaming; horror being my favorite genre. I like to write about games in my spare time. When I'm not writing, I'm playing or talking about them. Hopefully this continues into what ever future employment I find myself in.

According to reports from Eurogamer, Silent Hill: Downpour developer, Vatra Games may be closing its doors. Eurogamer followed up with local sources and contacted Vatra’s parent company Kuju for clarity. Kuju’s official response did not confirm not deny the closure but instead left the situation open and stated that “no decisions have yet been made” and that the company is currently conducting a “strategic review” of its business.

“As part of this process, the on-going business activities of the Vatra studio are currently under review. However, at this stage, no decisions have yet been made.” Kuju told Eurogamer.

With only two games under its belt: Rush N’ Attack and Silent Hill: Downpour, the studio might be closing before it got the chance to accomplish much. Vatra’s third game was rumored to be a hack-and-slash type game similar in style to God of War.

If this closure does occur, I know many fans of Downpour and myself will be crushed. Vatra successfully created, what I felt was a good Silent Hill game, and to see them close down would be unfortunate. I would love to see them return to the Silent Hill series, and no matter how unlikely that might have been, a closure would kill any and all possibilities of such happening. Not to mention that this would be yet another instance of a developer having to shut its doors, leaving its employees without a job–something that is becoming very common these days. If Vatra does close, here’s hoping the staff won’t be left in the cold without options.

[Source]

  • Ross Ingram

    All I can say is :(

  • shaun

    no way :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/abestatic Abhilash Ravindran

    Well thats upsetting.

  • http://twitter.com/MarlonReyes Marlon Reyes

    That’s sad to hear :( . While Downpour was a bit different, I very much enjoyed the heck out of it. Doubt that we’ll get that patch now since this has risen

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmad-Al-Hamily/1234508805 Ahmad Al-Hamily

    This is not cool. Dunno about Rush N Attack but they did a good job on Downpour!

  • http://relyonhorror.com/ CJ Melendez

    Why am I surprised that the sociopaths would come out of their holes and declare this is good news simply because they didn’t like Downpour? Sickening.

    • http://twitter.com/Nekroido Nekroido

      I didn’t like Downpour, but this is sure sad. They’re talented and ambitious, they are not afraid to experiment with things. Let’s hope this rumor stays being a rumor, and guys at Vatra will show their best in new games.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1230244270 Matthew Schlotman

    This is a bummer…..thanks for the ‘heads up,’ and don’t worry about the aholes living in their mom’s basement. Their opinion does not matter

  • Mikey Ward

    I’m really sad to see this. I actually really enjoyed their take on Rush’n Attack, this isn’t just about Downpour for me. These people are clearly very talented and have some great ideas floating around, its’ a shame to see them go. I lost another beloved developer earlier this gen (What can I say, I appreciate what Grin did), and they reformed as Fat Shark and kept making the same stuff they’d been making. What are the odds of a smaller company like Vatra doing the same?

  • Isaac

    Did Downpour really sell that badly? I’d be iffy on the idea of them doing another Silent Hill (Downpour was fine, but just didn’t really work as a SH game IMO) but I’d be sad to hear about so many people being out of work.

    • ariessiren

      i agree. it wasnt really silent hill. sad about the employees. i think konami didnt give them the resources to really flesh out the game. seems rushed and unpolished.

  • Levito

    Looks like another victim of this console generations insanely high development costs/not enough returns. Very sad, hope the staff at Vatra are able to find new jobs in the industry if they do happen to close doors. :(

  • Kaine

    Man, this blows. I really enjoyed Downpour, technical issues aside. I was really hoping that Vatra would get another crack at the franchise. Hope the individual team members can at least go out there and find work. :(

  • liam

    soon there wont be any game companies and yet everyone still wants next gen which is going to be even more expensive for developers .

  • Benjamin May

    That’s sad to hear Downpour waasn’t perfect, but it was very good. I was sort of hooing that Vatra would get a chance to make another Silent Hill game at some point, so that they could work on the little problems that Downpour had. If they do close, then I hope the staff all manage to find decent employent elsewhere.

  • http://twitter.com/SameerMonier Sameer Monier

    well I hope this doesn’t affect the next Silent Hill, meaning it goes into Resident Evil route, with more action and explosions, since the more Survival Horror kinda game didn’t get much attention, Konami may go with another Homecoming.

    • ariessiren

      With the halloween horror nights silent hill attraction, the new movie and book of memories, hopefully the press will keep SH alive in the gaming sense. everything is going co op or multi, thats how developers stay afloat in this generation. i never touch the online for horror games, but the new generation lives and breathes online. id rather have silent hill in some form rather than never again. some horror is better than no horror

  • Koulamatata

    Downpour could have played much smoother, but it was still a fantastic game. I don’t really want SH to go to another developer. These guys were all right.

  • Kaine

    well I hope that you really closed down

  • ariessiren

    i personally really enjoyed climax as the developer. i hope they give it back to them. but if book of memories doesnt sell well, i think SH is pretty much done unless multiplayer gets incorporated. everyone hates co-op multi but lets face it, thats where the money is and where SH is headed. single player just doesnt sell to good anymore. hope book of memories comes to 3ds.

  • Nick

    While Downpour wasnt a perfect game it was still a good game and im sad hope this dosent happen :(

  • Lexi

    This is really sad… :(
    No matter what anyone’s opinion on Downpour’s gameplay/story is, I personally felt that there was a lot of soul in the game, that these people worked hard on it and not just in a superficial, ‘let’s get this game out of the door’ way.
    It’s always saddening to see hard-working and creative developers in trouble. I really hope they don’t actually close.
    (To be honest, I was even thinking it’d be great if they, or Climax, developed the next Silent Hill game.)

  • killer89

    Honestly speaking, JC… You are so far the only gaming journalist, who has been worried about game devs, who i have seen.

    Thats somewhat… I Dont know… Sad…

  • tigerspaw

    Still haven’t played Downpour (waiting for the price to lower just a tad more..), but this makes me feel pretty bad for Vatra :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcos-Munoz/1510323602 Marcos Munoz

    That is sad to hear if it happens it was great playing a good silent hill after the horrible “homecoming” so i wish them the best of luck and if things workout i await the next game.