The current developers of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 are going “fully” indie again

A few of the UK’s fanciest former indie developers are going indie again… with help from venture capital. Still Wakes The Deep and Dear Esther creators The Chinese Room have slipped the surly bonds of former parent company Sumo Digital in the course of a management buyout, with “facilitation” from Hiro Capital. Now “fully independent”, they’re focussing on the creation of original games, with two unannounced projects in the offing once they’ve finished developing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

Founded in 2007 by a group of academically minded Half-Life 2 modders, The Chinese Room made waves initially with Dear Esther, an introspective first-person exploration game that emphasised environmental storytelling over mechanics, aggressively and affectionately described as a “walking sim”.

They later worked with Frictional on Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs – sequel to The Dark Descent and perhaps the best-written Amnesia game – and Sony’s Santa Monica Studio on Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, in which you chase golden phantoms around a sorrowful English village. I once took a botanist on a walking tour of Rapture and we both thought the flowers were excellent. I also love the soundtrack, which makes me want to wander off into the hills of Shropshire and die tragically of, nudge-wink, “Spanish flu”.

The Chinese Room were acquired by Sumo Digital in 2018, who were themselves later acquired by Tencent. The developers’ most recent project is Still Wake The Deep, a creature feature set aboard a Scottish oil rig: in his review, Brendy concluded that it “doesn’t push the boat out but still excels within its genre”. Sadly, there has been some belt-tightening of late. Sumo confirmed layoffs at The Chinese Room and elsewhere in their operations this June, as part of plans to move away from original game creation and “focus exclusively on development services for partners”.

According to a PR email this week, Sumo put The Chinese Room up for sale earlier this year, with the expectation that it would be sold to private equity or an overseas buyer. The management buyout ensures that the studio will remain UK-owned, according to the email, though it’s not clear how exactly Hiro Capital (who are based in London and Luxembourg) have “faciliated” the deal, and what they’ll expect in return. Compare and contrast how Amplitude bought their independence back from Sega.

According to studio director Ed Daly, “this management buyout allows us to scratch the creative itch of continuing to work on new, original intellectual property, but also to partner with other studios on other projects when they fit in with our vision.” Best of luck with it all, peeps. Please make another game about a subterranean hellfactory.