Slipping under the radar before the holidays is the news that Jukai Studio, developer of the maligned horror game Stray Souls, has shut down. It stated on Twitter that this was due to the closure of Versus Evil (its publisher), poor critical reception and sales for the game, and cyberbullying.
The last point was supposedly especially brutal for the developer (which consisted of two “core individuals” and contracted personnel). “Throughout the entire duration, we, our publisher staff, other publisher dev teams and our close ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor, and some of you, as our community, were also tormented with unwanted messages and emails.
“The matter is now in the hands of our lawyers, so we cannot speak about it any further, but know that we will not abandon it despite the studio’s closure.”
Despite the studio shutting down, no one has been laid off, since it “never functioned as a large corporation.” Instead, the team members decided “that each of us will go their separate ways.” The IP is still owned by the developer, but the chances of further support are looking unlikely.
Stray Souls launched in October 2023 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and PC. Check out our review, where we awarded it a 4 out of 10 for its story, characters, voice acting, bugs and other issues, though it did receive some praise for its visuals courtesy of Unreal Engine 5.