Kirby Support Studio Vanpool Shuts Down - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 June 2023 / 2,840 Views
Tokyo-based studio, Vanpool, has shut down as of May 31, according to the official website for the developer.
"We have continued to develop games thanks to everyone's kindness, but due to various circumstances, we have decided to disband," reads a post on the official website.
"We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the patronage we have received from all of you, and apologize for any inconvenience caused."
Vanpool was founded in 1999 and mainly focused on developing games for Nintendo platforms. It developed the Nintendo-published Dillon series and co-developed four Kirby games with HAL Laboratory. The Kirby games are Super Kirby Clash, Kirby Fighters 2, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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That's a bummer, these past few Kirby games have been fantastic.
Fully agree, and my kids love it. Would make a lot more sense for Nintendo to induct them to first party than this disband.
Yeah, so bizarre that some companies are acquiring developers, some are disbanding developers, and Sony is doing both!
Forgotten Land is such a cool game, this is unfortunate.
shows where the profits went, or at least didnt go.
Im worried for Kirby’s future :(
This article neglected to mention Vanpool's best game, Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.
So why did they actually shut down? The games they worked on recently sold well enough...
Since they were just a support developer they might have gotten a flat pay instead of residual payments.
Just finished Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe yesterday. I liked it, nice casual platformer, and a lot of extra modes.
Seems like this disbanding might not have been caused truly by a matter of finance, if you look at the games they co-developped. They were in most cases moderately successful.
Wonder how this might affect HAL in the makings of Kirby spin-offs and such
This sucks. -_-
Did these Kirby games sell well?
Yes
More importantly they are not expensive to make. If the Xenoblades (apparently) are all profitable (I remember hearing X was not a net loss), Kirby is more than profitable.
