6 years after successfully crowdfunding a game about orphans in a cyberpunk warzone, the studio making it has closed: 'We've been so close to a release, several times, and there's a lot to regret after all the work done'

There's a bit of unintended irony in our 2018 preview of Orphan Age, a life-sim game about orphans attempting to survive in the midst of a cyberpunk warzone. «Not sure this one will have a happy ending,» we said at the time, a reference to the game's grim premise that turned out to be prescient in an unexpected way.

A demo for Orphan Age was released in 2019 but a full early access launch never happened, and now it never will. Studio Black Flag, the developer, has announced that following a split with its publisher, funding has dried up and the studio has ceased operations.

«The last few months we've been going through bankruptcy procedures in France,» Studio Black Flag wrote on Steam (via Game Developer). «This started when communication broke down between us and our publisher, leading to payments not continuing. Alas, with our publisher not continuing funding and no other sources of continued funding to finalize the game, the French government has elected to shut down the studio effective immediately.

»So with that, we are deeply saddened to announce the end of our time working on the development of Orphan Age, and that Studio Black Flag will no longer be sailing as of the end of this month."

Studio Black Flag attributed the shutdown to the «current downturn in the videogame industry,» and said its publishing contract means «we simply do not have ownership over Orphan Age in a way that would allow us to shop it to another publisher.» Even if it was able to secure full ownership rights, the current state of the industry means it would be «an incredibly difficult, lengthy process to find someone open to supporting our project.»

A successful 2018 Kickstarter for Orphan Age raised more than $35,000 to support development, but that money is long gone. Studio Black Flag is looking into releasing the «most finalized» build of the game to backers, but legal issues need to be worked out first. Even if it does happen, the studio warned that the build «will not be anything