Orphan Age dev Studio Black Flag closes down after publisher split

French developer Studio Black Flag has declared bankruptcy, and the studio has shut down.

The studio, which was working on Orphan Age before its end, explained "communications broke down" between it and its publisher. Without present or future funding, the country's government has shut it down, effective immediately.

Black Flag had its concerns about potentially closing in the summer, but said the last few weeks confirmed it was an "inevitable situation. Due to the legal specifics of this case, we were put back in a closed bottle and unable to talk about the situation."

"Ultimately," it added, "we appear to be another casualty of the current downturn in the video game industry."

In an FAQ, Black Flag explained it does not own Orphan Age in a way that allows it to bring the survival game to a different publisher. And money the studio received via Kickstarter has already been used, so the "risk" of Orphan Age "didn't pay off."

Despite this being its last day, Black Flag is "exploring options" to release its most finalized Orphan Age build to players. But it stressed this was "outside of our abiliites," and could be prevented by undisclosed legal issues.

If that build is released, the studio stressed it "will not be anything approaching a final, polished product, but significantly further along than our previously released demo."

It also said its publisher could continue the game's development with another studio, which is "entirely out of our hands."

Black Flag founder and game director Adrien Forestier gave his thoughts on the team's end, saying there was "a lot to regret after all the work done along the many iterations and restarts we went through."

"Today marks the end of Black Flag in a pretty brutal way and in slow motion at the same time," he continued. While he acknowledged Orphan Age as a "slippery concept," he thanked staff and players that "made this quarter of my life feel like the blink of an eye."

"When it's time, I'll reflect publicly on this even if it matters only to a dozen players," concluded Forestier. "It's heartbreaking to end this adventure on these words and to think about all our supporters we are letting down. While it's the end for Black Flag, I'll do whatever I can so it's not the end for Orphan Age.”