Robotoki Is Shutting Down

This is like Dark Sector all over again, except Dark Sector eventually came out.

Best of wishes to those out of work, and hopefully their efforts won't completely go to waste, but this did seem kind of inevitable.

Hopefully these guys can find something else to work on in the future. Its tough losing a job, so best of luck

Ah being dismissive of new games before them even getting out...it might have been a decent game, now we will never know. I'm at least glad he's making Star Citizen though.

From the looks of things the company seemed to be pretty poorly managed. A company, who isn't profitable (and probably hemorrhaging a lot of money for an ambitious project), doesn't need a life sized version of their mascot for the office and some foosball tables.

Stereotypical startup spending investor money until it dries up. Make a profit and then you can buy the snack bars.

Hell, Dark Sector came out twice. First as a completely different game called Dark Sector and years later the original concept finally made it out as Warframe.

Same here.

That sucks to hear. I really hope that those people find a job.

Wow... that was quick

Not completely different. Dark Sector is a prequel to Warframe and the protagonist of Dark Sector is the founder of the Tenno.

Always sad when a project dies but couldn't really see the attraction of Human Element to start with. Borderlands, Rage and the upcoming Mad Max seem to have this ground well covered - and I'm not exactly in love with any of them anyway.

A shame I suppose, the game never really spoke to me, but it is never fun to see projects fail and people losing their jobs.

Good thing you're reading the news section then!

@amyggen: Actually, I did click the links and read more about it before commenting. That didn't change my perspective. To me, this is a story about a company I don't know, started by a person I don't know, that was developing a game I had never heard of. It might as well have been a local news story from Beijing. It is *extremely rare* for this to happen with a news story on Giantbomb for me. Rare enough that it was absolutely worth pointing out, and in pointing it out I also reveal that perhaps that might in some small way be why they are shutting down. They failed to generate interest in themselves and their product. From watching the game trailer and from others' comments about the trailer, it definitely seems like it failed to engender any kind of interest or excitement.

If no one knows about or cares about your product or company, you're probably doing something wrong with your marketing/messaging and you're less likely to get support from investors. Note how they had a failed Kickstarter a while back.

I wasn't making a drive by comment. I was efficiently conveying my reaction to the story, one which I'm sure a lot of people share, and which had been carefully considered.

Was no fan of Bowling but I hope everyone gets a secure job in the aftermath of this. Never good to see this kind of thing happen, especially at such a relatively young company.

"Creative strategist" of Activision quits and make a studio wich comes up with an android game and a Zombie survival game. Great creative stuff.

@ildon: I don't think his name is as well known as his online alias "FourZeroTwo". He was basically the dude everyone tweeted at with concerns over Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, but outside of that I can see how you would have no idea who he is.

I also didn't know a thing about this game until watching the Game Awards. The Bomb Crew discussed it shortly in the podcast following those awards, but that is about all the coverage I've seen of that game/this studio on this site.

Just wanted to back you up a bit! I knew both of these things and in no way fault you for not hearing about them - the coverage here specifically was minimal. That being said, a studio shutdown is definitely newsworthy, and I hope for all the best to anyone affected!

Seeing as how Robotoki's employee benefits include perks like "mandatory" and "unlimited" paid time off, company Six Flag days, full healthcare coverage - why am I not surprised that they've ran out of money?

Never heard of them.