Possible Locationan independent game studio with employees spread across the globe was abruptly shut down today by CEO Jeff Strain, one of his former employees. It was announced on Twitter. The studio launched in 2021 with the goal of creating a AAA title, and it has also hired industry luminaries such as Waypoint’s Austin Walker and Ubisoft designer Liz England. His closure follows the closure last month of Crop Circle Games, another studio owned by Strain’s Prytania Media, which he founded with his wife Annie Delisi Strain.
In a strange message about the studio’s closing and layoffs to employees, Possibility Space owner Jeff Strain blamed the studio’s closure on employees leaking information to the press. pic.twitter.com/d4OHrm3z2N
— Nicole Carpenter (@sweetpotatoes) April 12, 2024
In an email obtained by Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter, Strain said he was “surprised” to learn that classified information, codenamed Project Vonnegut, the studio’s main title, was shared with Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach. Strain claims that an unnamed publisher “expressed little confidence” in further funding the studio, leading to a mutual agreement to cancel the title. Later, he decided to close the studio completely.
Possibility Space isn’t the first studio to have game details leaked to the press, and it’s unclear why the information would be damning enough to cost the publisher funding (and remember, this is just Strain’s version of events).
Earlier this month, Annie Delisi Strain published a similarly confusing letter (via IGN) where he blamed the closing of Crop Circle Game on the economic downturn, but additionally revealed that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He claimed, without evidence, that Kotaku’s Gach could potentially publish health details without consulting him: “I stepped down as CEO this winter on medical leave, and while I don’t know the content of Mr. Gach’s article, I have no guarantees. As a rare female gaming industry CEO, my personal health struggles will not be featured in the article.”
