Archiact, the studio that has distinguished itself in VR gaming announced that it would be shutting down. Founded in 2013, Archiact has an impressive roster of VR games including Marvel Dimension of Heroes, Doom 3: VR Edition, and Freediver: Triton Down.
“Archiact’s journey is coming to a close,” the company announced through a LinkedIn post. “On August 12, we informed the staff that the studio will close in two weeks.”
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The company claimed it was the “pioneer in VR” and “the development of immersive reality games”. Throughout its incredible 11-year run, Archiact published over 35 games and partnered with several companies in the industry to push the boundaries and possibilities of VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality).
“Most importantly, it served as a home over the years to hundreds of talented developers. They believed in the power of games and the promise of immersive reality. And they believed in one another and all of the players they touched.”
At the peak of its existence, the company’s LinkedIn profile showed the company size was 51 to 200 employees. At the time of writing, only 35 accounts were associated with the Vancouver, British Columbia-headquartered VR maker.
One of the features that set Archiact apart was that although they were based in Vancouver, they also employed remote workers living all over Canada. They also had a studio in Toronto which was 100% remote. For employees outside Canada, they offered relocation assistance.
Archiact closure follows layoffs earlier this year
The shuttering of the VR studio is coming months after it laid off an undisclosed number of employees. Archiact announced redundancies in January, a decision that synced with many other layoffs to signal the continuation of trouble in the game industry.
“We are deeply saddened to share that we had to say goodbye to a number of talented colleagues this week,” the studio announced at that time. “It was not a decision we took lightly, and we are working with these individuals to offset this difficult transition as much as possible.”
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Several former employees of the studio have commented on the closure. GameBaba Universe scanned through the company’s LinkedIn and found Julia Canfora, former director of human resources at Archiact Interactive who posted about looking for a new role a week ago suggesting some employees may have been notified earlier than others.
“This is one of the hardest posts I’ve had to make,” wrote studio head Kurt Busch. “For the last seven years, I’ve had the extreme good fortune of working with a keenly motivated and talented team, a great and compassionate founder, and a wonderful roster of partners. We set out to immerse the world in wonder.”
“Archiact will close on August 23. I will take some time to contemplate the future and appreciate the people and experiences that made this chapter so special. I’m so grateful to everyone who shared this journey.”
Creative director Rafael Vazquez also talked about looking for new opportunities and listing out his incredible portfolio without mentioning the studio closure. Like Vazquez, many other former employees are now soliciting the help of their connections to land new roles.
Although layoffs in the video game industry are now less frequent compared to earlier this year, events like the closure of Archiact are a reminder that the industry is not out of the woods just yet.
We included links to the profiles of everyone mentioned in this post to make it easy for anyone with open opportunities to reach them. What will you miss most about Archiact? Let us know in the comment box below.
