Counterplay Games isn’t what one would consider a big-name studio, but they have notability in our neck of the gaming woods as the developer of the digital CCG Duelyst and the PlayStation 5-exclusive co-op “looter slasher” Godfall; the former game was sunset in 2020, and the latter is feature complete but underwhelms if player reviews and impressions from MOP’s Tyler are anything to go by.
Unfortunately it looks as if the studio has now faced the fate of others in the game industry, as a LinkedIn post confirms that Counterplay has been disbanded. The reveal was shared by Isaac Oster, lead technical artist for studio Jackalyptic Games, which readers might recall is working on a multiplayer Warhammer 40K game. Oster’s post says that both studios were working together to make the project happen but that partnership had to be dissolved.
“Over the past six months or so our project at Jackalyptic has been supercharged by the world-class devs at Counterplay Games. It’s impossible to overstate their impact. From the very first day they put their shoulders to the wheel like it was their baby.
“Unfortunately we were unable to continue our partnership into the new year. I want to share the profiles of a few folks I worked with closely, strongly recommend, and hope to work with again as soon as possible.”
Oster’s post then goes on to reference several former Counterplay devs, and Jackalyptic’s composer Ben Dahl also went to bat for the affected workers, lauding their work ethic in his own post.
Readers will recall that Jackalyptic is the Jack Emmert-fronted studio that NetEase is funding, while Counterplay’s Godfall was published by Embracer-owned Gearbox. Given the current state of Embracer and NetEase, both of which have cut loose an endless stream of game teams over the last year, we can only assume Counterplay was just another unlucky independent studio caught up in the industry’s financial chaos. It is not clear how Jackalyptic will replace its core collaborator, either.
While Counterplay’s body of work didn’t appear to stick the landing with gamers, it still sucks to see the industry chew up and spit out more of its talent, and we express our hope that those employees affected by the studio’s closure find new work soon.
