RIP Arkedo Studio

It's always a sad day when a game-development studio closes its doors, but it's an especially sad one when the studio in question was known for putting out quality games.

Given that, it's likely that bucket-loads of tears are being wept in response to the news that no more games will be produced by Arkedo Studio, the company responsible for Big Bang Mini (DS), the Arkedo Series of XBLIG titles and Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (XBLA, PSN and PC).

According to a blog post written by co-founder Aurelien Regard, the company "is still here. But no one’s employed anymore.

"Arkedo hasn’t closed down and is not bankrupt," he adds, but "no more games are [being] produced, either."

Fans of Arkedo Studio's past efforts may take a bit of solace in the fact that two "small" and as-yet-unknown games will still be released by the company, although Regard didn't say when that will happen or which systems will be the recipient of them.

See also: 'Five XBLIG games you should have played, but probably didn't' and 'Shucks, this could have been a cool game ...'

I'm not entirely sure what's going on in this trailer, but (I think) I like what I see anyway

The trailer in question is for Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, by the way--which is being developed by Arkedo and published by Sega. It'll hit PSN and XBLA in late September (Sept. 25 and 26, respectively and specifically) and PC on Oct. 3. Oh, and all three releases will have $14.99 price tags attached to them.



I loved Arkedo Series - 03 Pixel!, so I'm seriously considering picking up the XBLA version of Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. The only things that may keep me from doing so are the above-mentioned price tag and the fact that so much is going on in the trailer above that I'm a bit worried that playing this game could be an overwhelming (in a bad way) experience.

'We do not see piracy as [a] big evil'

That's just one of the many interesting things Camille Guermonprez, founder of Paris-based Arkedo Studio, has to say in this recent interview with EDGE magazine's Chris Donlan.

Case in point:

"We acknowledge that a large number of copies have been pirated for both games (Nervous Brickdown and Big Bang Mini), but we don’t think of them as lost sales. Rationally, we try to give people a reason to buy our games, like pricing them below the usual price, taking extra care for the game manual with silly jokes or making lenticular sleeves like we did for Big Bang Mini."

A scene from Arkedo Series 03: Pixel!

Also:

"Sales [of the Arkedo Series titles] are decent, but do not cover expenses yet. That’s okay, because we see XNA as a quick way to give birth to games, and then we’ll see what we do with them after that. Pixel!, for instance, was kind of proof that the concept worked, and I would not be too surprised to see other iterations from Pastagames out of this original idea."

By the way, Guermonprez mentions at the end of the interview that the Arkedo Series may soon show up on PSN. "The good news is that it will not be just a compilation," he says. "It will be our first time on PSN, so we want to come with something more."

See also: 'Shucks, this could have been a cool game ...' and 'Is it strange that I want a 360 just so I can play XBLA games?'