Treaty Developer Firewalk Studios has been closed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, according to Sony internal email from CEO Hermen Hulst. The failed shooter has gone under permanently, Hulst confirmed, and will not return.
“After much consideration, we have decided that the best path forward is to permanently discontinue the game and close the studio,” Hulst said in the email to employees on Tuesday. “I would like to thank everyone at Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
Hulst explained this after taking it Treaty offline in September, SIE has spent “a lot of time in recent months exploring all our options” for the shooter. “The PvP first-person shooter genre is a competitive space that is constantly evolving, and unfortunately we did not achieve our goals with this title,” he said. “We will take the lessons learned from that Treaty and continue to enhance our live service capabilities to achieve future growth in this area.”
In a statement about X (formerly Twitter), Firewalk Studios wrote that it was “signing off for the final time.”
“We took some risks along the way – combining aspects of card battlers and fighting games with first-person shooters – and while some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t turn out as we’d hoped, the idea of incorporating new things came together. stopping the world is critical to advancing the medium,” the studio said. “The talent at Firewalk and the level of individual craftsmanship is truly world-class, and teams across Sony Interactive Entertainment and across the industry will be fortunate to work with them. (…) Thank you to the many teams, partners and fans who have supported us along the way.”
In addition to Firewalk Studios, Hulst announced that another Sony studio, Neon Koi, will close. Helsinki-based Neon Koi, which was previously called Savage Games and was acquired by Sony in 2022was developing a mobile action game for PlayStation.
Treaty was originally released for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC in late August, but was subsequently withdrawn from sale and taken offline on September 6. At that time it was Treaty game director Ryan Ellis said the studio planned to “explore options, including those that will better reach our players” while “determining the best path for the game.”
Treaty made headlines for its low player count on Steam at launch. According to a report from IGN, analysts estimate that opening week sales were unusually poor for a first-party game published by Sony – only about 25,000 copies of Treaty were estimated to have been sold. Amid bad press and declining player numbers, Sony and Firewalk quickly pulled the plug. Treaty went offline two weeks after launch. Customers who purchased the game received their money back.
Before Tuesday’s announcement, Sony and Firewalk’s plans were in favor Treaty‘s future seemed to be open-ended, leading to speculation that the game could be re-released as a free-to-play game – Treaty costs $39.99 – or as part of Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription.
Firewalk Studios was founded in 2018 as part of the game studio collective ProbablyMonsters, founded by Harold Ryan. Sony and ProbablyMonsters announced a publishing deal for Firewalk’s debut game in 2021. In April 2023, Sony announced that it planned to acquire Firewalk from ProbablyMonsters.