"I want room to make a wrong turn": Following Samson dev's bankruptcy, its founder is considering how AI might factor into new studio plans

Liquid Swords, the Swedish developer behind the crime game Samson , is closing up shop. Founder Christofer Sundberg confirmed this after bankruptcy reports emerged, stating directly, "Liquid Swords is closing." Samson launched on PC in April, but the console edition for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S that released in September "did far better," Sundberg said. However, he admitted that, "It wasn't enough to save the studio." At the same time, Samson might have a future after Liquid Swords closes up shop, the executive said. https://twitter.com/CHSundberg/status/2112186074734752089 "I’m proud of our team and what we built. We’re discussing continued support for Samson. We make mistakes, we learn, we rise, we move on. I never give up. More soon," he wrote. According to a report , all 27 employees at Liquid Swords are being let go as part of the bankruptcy process. Workers reported not getting paid for two months, but those salaries will be covered by local laws in Sweden. Liquid Swords described itself as a "zero-nonsense" game studio. Sundberg said, "Game development has become so full of distractions that affect quality and motivation." He said his ambition was to "change that" with Liquid

"I've done everything I can to make this succeed. " UPDATE 19TH OCTOBER: Liquid Swords founder and CCO Christofer Sundberg has confirmed the studio's closure.

Update: studio co-founder confirms closure Update 19/10: Despite attempts to find the studio a buyer, co-founder Christofer Sundberg has announced that Liquid Swords is closing. "I'm proud of our team and what we built," he writes, adding that former staff are "discussing continued support" for Samson.

Right, let's get one important thing out of the way first: I've played a fair bit more of Dawn of War 4's main campaign, after my initial impressions of a single mission last year, and I think it is very good. The action is as screen-filling as ever, the Orks are a delight, and the combat director, which sees individual combatants lock onto each other with bespoke animations when groups fight in melee, remains a genuine feat of RTS engineering. I'll have much more to say on that front soon, though I'd like a little more time with it first. And so, in the meantime, I bring huge* news.

I may have set my expectations for Dawn of War 4 too high, but it's a series that, to my mind, never retreads the same ground. It's therefore been disappointing to feel, having played it across two its campaigns that this long-awaited sequel may have taken too few risks - or been too reverent of the games that came before. Back in the hands of Relic Entertainment, the original Dawn of War was closest to a traditional RTS game. Yet its use of cover mechanics, unit customisation, and onscreen violence felt distinctly new compared to other games I was playing at the time. As someone who'd grown up on Age of Empires and Command & Conquer, seeing units pair off and take part in animated scuffles brought the battlefield to life, especially after spending years of Saturday afternoons sliding static Warhammer figurines around a tabletop.

The furore over Sony's decision to effectively kill physical games on its PlayStation platform appears to have died down (for now), and new data from Alinea Analytics shows how wide the split between physical and digital PS5 games is in 2026. As Alinea's head of market analysis, Rhys Elliott, notes , PlayStation's top new 2026 games by physical copies are mostly single-player AAA titles, with Resident Evil Requiem the best-seller. Capcom's hit Resident Evil game is estimated to have sold 1.3 million units on PS5, and it's also estimated to be the only game on the list to have broken the 1 million sales milestone. Other games like 007 First Light (873,000) and Marvel's Wolverine have come close (799,000), but overall, digital currently has a 70/30 sales lead. Top PlayStation games by physical copies sold and revenues Resident Evil Requiem -- 1.3 million units sold 007 First Light -- 873K units sold Marvel's Wolverine -- 799K units sold EA Sports FC 27 -- 705K units sold Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced -- 613K units sold Crimson Desert -- 511K units sold Pragmata -- 442K units sold Onimusha: Way of the Sword -- 423K units sold As Elliott explained, PlayStation first-party and Ja