The studio best known for developing hit open world game Sleeping Dogs, United Front Games, has apparently closed its doors for good. The sad news, which comes by way of sources confirming to Kotaku Australia and GameSpot that the closure is official, seems to have arrived out of nowhere; United Front had given no indication of being in financial trouble previously.
In fact, the developer was, prior to the closure, hard at work on their latest title – Smash+Grab, which had only recently arrived on Steam’s Early Access program. On top of that, a free weekend period for the competitive multiplayer game has literally just ended.
While Smash+Grab‘s Steam page is still available to view, it appears to have been removed from sale entirely, with no explanation to be seen anywhere. Holding an average score of 7/10 from over 1000 user reviews, we can only assume sales haven’t been as high as United had hoped.
The official game description reads:
SMASH+GRAB is an underground competition where gangs of the future battle it out for loot, weapons, and infamy inside a corporate urban dystopia. Assemble your crew and team up with other players to fight, loot, and craft your weaponry to come out on top.
Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait for United Front to provide their own official statement concerning the closure in order to understand the situation more clearly, but boy, what a blow to the industry.