Grin closes, nothing to smile at

  • Posted August 12th, 2009 at 21:58 EDT by Adam Dolge
  • 47 Comments

Swedish developer GRIN is closing its doors after some 12 years of making games like Bionic Commando, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, and Terminator: Salvation. The studio is closing because of an “unbearable cash flow situation,” founders Bo and Ulf Andersson announced on their website today. The company was reportedly affected by publishers delaying payment.

The founders thanked their partners and the publishers who did pay them, but said their “unreleased masterpiece” was not allowed to finish.

Several former GRIN employees have founded a new studio, Develop reports. Outbreak Studios will focus on downloadable games for the PlayStation Network, the PSPgo, iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, and Games for Windows Live.

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What are your thoughts?

  1. sithdarkess

    • 10:02pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    oh oh oh i'm first. sooooooo whaaaaaattt!

     

  2. BlinkyEC | BlinkyEC

    • 10:05pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    lol unfinshed masterpiece? i'm sure...

  3. jakster123x | jakster123x

    • 10:06pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Bionic Commando rearmed was good

  4. rabidcujo

    • 10:07pm BST - August 12th, 2009

     hahaha unfinished masterpiece. btw bionic commando sucked

  5. ttech10 | Scheller

    • 10:10pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    @2, LOL that's exactly what I thought. I'm SURE they were working on a 'masterpiece'...

  6. BlinkyEC | BlinkyEC

    • 10:12pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    i wonder what it was? bionic terminater re-wanted?

  7. zombieking36

    • 10:17pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    pfft... they didnt make good games anyways!

  8. X-Men_Wolverine

    • 10:18pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Those 3 games which are mentioned all sucked imo.

    Masterpiece? yeah right lol

  9. Metal_Gear_Solid | jin258

    • 10:26pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    wow,

    the games they made were bad in these recent year.

  10. Bigdoggy | Gypscrew

    • 10:27pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    wtf, unfinished masterpiece my ***.   They are obviously trying to pull a self pitty or getting others to pity them.  Ridiculous, I don't see a loss after they shut the doors. lmao   They were just like all the other generic developers, nothing to really feel bad about.

  11. O_G_H

    • 10:40pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Bionic Commando's failure really did them in.  So f'n sad.  I don't like to see that happen to any business.

  12. Bazookajoe_83

    • 10:50pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Sad, but company who do movie games doesnt end well. Hopefully the dlc games will hold the same standard as bionic commando rearmed did.

  13. Rapture | NEREVAR117

    • 10:56pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Their games were nothing to brag about, but I hate seeing another company swirl down the drain.

  14. DemonOfRazgriz07 | DemonOfRazgriz07

    • 10:58pm BST - August 12th, 2009

     I never played any of their games, but this is just sad to hear... first Free Radical, now these guys. ugh.

  15. Fiddlesworth

    • 11:05pm BST - August 12th, 2009

     Wanted and Terminator were short but hardly poor quality as people are making out. BC Rearmed didn't appeal to me but Bionic Commando is very good.

  16. Tseng VII | TsengVII

    • 11:06pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Mighty shame...

  17. lordAlucard | Sympozium_666

    • 11:13pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    NOOOOO!!! they made really good games well except terminater

  18. Strudel | Strudel

    • 11:37pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    Good bye, please don't come again.

  19. TwitchingMcgee | Fook_Me_Fook_Q

    • 11:54pm BST - August 12th, 2009

    $100 says they sell the unfinished master piece to another company say EA lol

  20. coolguy | grazspaz

    • 12:03am BST - August 13th, 2009

    it's a shame that these studio's have to close up

  21. no1kevlin | no1kevlin

    • 1:03am BST - August 13th, 2009

    I suppose this is what happens when you make turkey after turkey after turkey of a game.

    Maybe some of the money they were wasting might go to a better Dev studio now.

  22. Oatmeal | NEJI64

    • 1:52am BST - August 13th, 2009

    dagg i would think they know moive games are bad buisness

  23. PSX_Legend | KillZone3000

    • 1:54am BST - August 13th, 2009

    Well at least they still doing stuff good for them :) 

  24. Overcast | Gamenificent

    • 2:28am BST - August 13th, 2009

    and nothing of value was lost...

  25. 1solidsnake | solid1snake67

    • 3:25am BST - August 13th, 2009

    they've mentioned games, that i will never play or buy. haha!  even terminator salvation, why would i buy a movie game?    sorry. but, my money has always gone, to the best games out there!!

  26. Windu88

    • 3:31am BST - August 13th, 2009

    Those bad games he has listed in the article that they developed cause the company to go down the drain. 

  27. hotshotdas

    • 4:00am BST - August 13th, 2009

     its a shame when good developers go bust. Who was the cheap producer that didn;t pay grin?

     

  28. yssul1027

    • 4:08am BST - August 13th, 2009

    Yeah, well. If you guys had put more efforts into the games...

    Look how Terminator turned out

  29. Dreadnought1275 | Dreadnought1275

    • 5:20am BST - August 13th, 2009

    "unbearable cash flow situation" caused by "unbearable games"

  30. BOZTRADAMUS | BOZTRADAMUS

    • 5:26am BST - August 13th, 2009

    @6
    hahahaha great!

  31. Linconan | Linconan

    • 5:35am BST - August 13th, 2009

    Sad news.

    I'll put one last grin for them.

     

  32. Xdeth | Xdeth

    • 5:57am BST - August 13th, 2009

    @11, I agree with you but after what they did to Terminator Salvation I cant say I feel bad.

  33. SolidDrake86

    • 6:55am BST - August 13th, 2009

    All you guys had was Rearmed. The rest of your games were heresy.

  34. progz | Progz

    • 7:36am BST - August 13th, 2009

    lol who cares all their games sucked anyways lol

  35. higgos22

    • 8:31am BST - August 13th, 2009

    @2 lol tht sounds about right, well lets see sum psn games

  36. jimmy303

    • 9:57am BST - August 13th, 2009

    how pathetich why laugh att ppl loosing their job 1-13 you guys make me sick do us all a fawor and piss off pls.

     

  37. bluesuedeshoes

    • 10:26am BST - August 13th, 2009

    Firstly the reason Terminator Salvation was development was supposedly cut short is to do with reputed Publishers not paying up all the cash they said they would. I will however say that Grin like many developers before them have fallen into a short term trap. Its easy to get games published on the back of a license or a franchise, but unless you use this 'breathing' room to develop your own IP's you'll eventually be stuffed. Wanted not their's, Terminator ditto and as for Bionic Commando sorry guys but that's not theres its Capcoms and Rearmed was just a rehash of a NES game. Wanted wasn't a bad game and Bionic Commando had its momments, h3ll even Terminator showed signs if more development time was put into it that it could have been a competant Gears rip off. Sadly though this is pointing to a more endemic problem within the industry today that of small devs not really being able to exist as fully independants and the publishers who quite frankly continue to consolidate into larger publishers at an alarming rate hold all the power and are stiffling the industry slowly. Ultimately when you look at the death of Free Radical, Clover and their ilk it is a loss to the industry and a little bit of creativity dies along with them and the industry homogenises even more. Call of Duty clones anyone? Or would you like a bit of Okami, Timesplitters etc?

  38. ps3owns4ever

    • 10:37am BST - August 13th, 2009

    that sucks they made some awryt games :D :(

  39. Radha | siriguillo

    • 3:08pm BST - August 13th, 2009

    thanks god

  40. ptmww3

    • 4:41pm BST - August 13th, 2009

    i wasn't really interested at any of those games but it's sad to see them close. if they made 1 GREAT game not 3 games, they might have not closed. :( btw i nerver buy games that turned from movies to game, they were made to fail.

  41. Gaddes | GaddesReinhart

    • 7:07pm BST - August 13th, 2009

    No loss. Bionic Commando: Rearmed was good but that's about it. Their other games where extreamally mediocore. lol at "unfinished masterpiece" as well.

  42. dirtydog1979 | DirtyDog1979

    • 11:30pm BST - August 13th, 2009

     @ 7 any lose is bad ya want EA to own the world this is a big lose RIP grin

  43. xhellspawnx

    • 1:40am BST - August 14th, 2009

    The world is going to H*ll...

  44. marseall | marseall

    • 8:30am BST - August 14th, 2009

     Uff....shame.

    And who will make me patch on Bionic Commando now? It freezes in last battle!!!

  45. Sashabaz

    • 4:38pm BST - August 14th, 2009

    hmmmm  maybe its BECAUSE they made games like terminator and Wanted that they had cash problems.... hee hee

  46. XAversionX | aVeRsioN_X

    • 1:23am BST - August 15th, 2009

     lol .. masterpiece.. 

     

    Does anyone actually care? 

  47. MinerWilly | MinerWilly

    • 11:54am BST - August 15th, 2009

    never good to see people lose their jobs , theres nothing funny about that . I never bought any of their titles due to average reviews and I only buy the high scoring games . Money is tight and I'm careful what I buy , I have 26 games none of which I regret buying .   

                   I hope some of these kids who think its funny and say stuff like who cares etc never have to go through the experience of losing a job .

                            

     

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