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In May 2009 after failing to acquire any development contracts for their Barcelona and Gothenburg offices, possibly due to the poor reception of Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator: Salvation developed at these offices. GRIN was forced to shutdown the two offices aswell as doing a significant cut in their Stockholm staff.
In August of 2009, Gamasutra and a few other sites reported that GRIN was in financial trouble. Shortly thereafter, the company had to lay off several employees due to low sales for Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation and the two Bionic Commando games. GRIN's last hit came in 2008 with their remake of Bionic Commando: Rearmed. It was their last game to gain critical success and to sell well.
On August 12, 2009, GRIN announced on their website that they were shutting down completely. On the official GRIN webpage the reason for the financial troubles were cited as being due to: "... too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation". It is not known which publishers this was refering too, but it might be related to "our unreleased masterpiece that we weren’t allowed to finish" also referenced in their farewell letter. This 'masterpiece' was probably a Final Fantasy XII spinoff codenamed Fortress ( referenced in this Kotaku article).
From the remains of the Gothenburg office Peter Björklund and a number of developers who were laid off from GRIN in May 2009 formed a new company, Outbreak Studios.
The company Fatshark AB where GRIN was a stakeholder is not effected by the closure of GRIN and will continue development of Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West using the well regarded GRIN technolgy, diesel.
GRIN started off with just a logo before the company even had a name, which naturally gave the company the name GRIN. Throughout the years there have been several versions of the GRIN logo, with new gold teeth being added for every released game. By the time the company was closed down, the logo had eight gold teeth.
GRIN had many different offices around the world, including Stockholm, Barcelona,Gothenburg and Jakarta.
GRIN was a Swedish developer, best known for their work on the PC versions of the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series and the two new Bionic Commando games. GRIN closed their doors August 12th, 2009.
History
Founded in 1997 by the brothers Bo and Ulf Andersson, GRIN worked on a number of games throughout the years, ranging from PC to console and arcade titles. Though GRIN was based in Sweden, the company had two studios outside the country located in Jakarta and Barcelona. In January 2008 a second Swedish development studio was opened in Gothenburg.In May 2009 after failing to acquire any development contracts for their Barcelona and Gothenburg offices, possibly due to the poor reception of Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator: Salvation developed at these offices. GRIN was forced to shutdown the two offices aswell as doing a significant cut in their Stockholm staff.
In August of 2009, Gamasutra and a few other sites reported that GRIN was in financial trouble. Shortly thereafter, the company had to lay off several employees due to low sales for Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation and the two Bionic Commando games. GRIN's last hit came in 2008 with their remake of Bionic Commando: Rearmed. It was their last game to gain critical success and to sell well.
On August 12, 2009, GRIN announced on their website that they were shutting down completely. On the official GRIN webpage the reason for the financial troubles were cited as being due to: "... too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation". It is not known which publishers this was refering too, but it might be related to "our unreleased masterpiece that we weren’t allowed to finish" also referenced in their farewell letter. This 'masterpiece' was probably a Final Fantasy XII spinoff codenamed Fortress ( referenced in this Kotaku article).
From the remains of the Gothenburg office Peter Björklund and a number of developers who were laid off from GRIN in May 2009 formed a new company, Outbreak Studios.
The company Fatshark AB where GRIN was a stakeholder is not effected by the closure of GRIN and will continue development of Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West using the well regarded GRIN technolgy, diesel.
Logo
Grin Logo
Offices
GRIN had many different offices around the world, including Stockholm, Barcelona,Gothenburg and Jakarta.
GRIN's Stockholm offices
Stockholm
GRIN headquarters are located in Stockholm. They operate on two floors in Hitechbuilding, which got its name during the internet booming days and now host very few – if any – internet companies. Currently, 130 people work in the Stockholm office. Here they also have one rule: you must take your shoes off when you enter. In Sweden, it is a sign of disrespect and bad manners if you do not take your shoes off when going into someones house. Since Bo and Ulf Andersson started GRIN in their basement, taking off shoes was natural. They continued that rule even when they grew bigger.
GRIN's Barcelona offices
GRIN opened their Barcelona office in 2007, housing about 70 employees. It is located on the Barcelona Beach Strip in the Torre Mapfre building, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Closed in May 2009.
GRIN's Jarkata offices
They opened this studio in the center of Jakarta, Indonesia. It's used as a Quality Assurance building but was hardly ever used due to complications in shipping Sony and Microsoft test equipment to the region.
Games
| Release Date | Titles | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Ballistics | Windows |
| 2003 | Bandits: Phoenix Rising | Windows |
| 2006 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter | Windows |
| 2007 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 | Windows |
| 2008 | Bionic Commando Rearmed | PlayStation Network, Windows, Xbox Live Arcade |
| 2009 | Wanted: Weapons of Fate | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 |
| 2009 | Bionic Commando | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 |
| 2009 | Terminator Salvation | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 |
| Unreleased | Fortress | PlayStation 3 |
| Company Name | GRIN |
| Street Address | Hitechbuilding 22 |
| City | Stockholm, Gothenburg, Barcelona, Jakarta |
| State | of Mind |
| Country | Sweden |
| Website | http://www.grin.se/ |
| Contact Email | |
| Phone Number | |
| Date Founded | Jan. 1, 1997 |
| Count of Games Published | 0 |
| Count of Games Developed | 8 |
| Aliases |
|
Scott Mitchell first in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 |
2
|
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Gottfried Groeder first in Bionic Commando |
2
|
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Super Joe first in Commando |
2
|
|
Nathan "Rad" Spencer first in Bionic Commando |
2
|
|
Adolf Hitler first in Castle Wolfenstein |
1
|
|
The President |
1
|
|
T-600 |
1
|
|
T-800 |
1
|
|
John Connor |
1
|
|
Jayne "Mag" Magdalene first in Bionic Commando |
1
|
| See all » |
