Developer GRIN Closes Its Doors - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 12 August 2009 / 3,928 Views

The Swedish based GRIN studios have officially closed their doors due to hard economic times. GRIN is the devloper of the PC versions of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2, but most recently they created Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation and Bionic Commando. While both GRAW's and Rearmed were well received, the last 3 titles failed to gain much traction at retail and were financial disappointments.

This may have led to the slow sales of these games, bringing upon their closure. I should feel bad for them but after playing Terminator, I really can't, but I'm sure they will be missed by others.

Article originally submitted by Bman54

27 Comments

almcchesney (on 13 August 2009)

after terminator it kinda serves em right that game was terrible, but i will miss ghost recon

Deneidez (on 13 August 2009)

Aaand... another one bites the dust. Shame, soon there will be only large companies and their very repetitive sequals.

sjhillsa (on 13 August 2009)

Funnily enough, I enjoyed Bionic Commando Re-armed more than the Bionic Commando game. Strange I know, but I found Re-armed alot of fun. Pity they have closed there doors, I was hoping for more content for that game. Never good to see a developer close doors.

@Salnax - Have a heart, Grin were part of HD gaming. Yes not the best developers, but they will be missed.

wiifan75 (on 13 August 2009)

Wonder how long they would have lasted if they'd done some Wii development? Lower costs and larger market. But the ex employees don't seem to be fans of Wii considering their target markets for their new company's games. Looks like they'd make a game for my old Sprint Sanyo phone before they'd make a Wii game. lol

radha (on 13 August 2009)

Bionic command sold less than 50 cent blood in the sand, and that was their only average game this gen, so they sure sucked very hard, terminator salvation is the shortest game EVER, i am glad they close and this is one of may most hated developers only one remains
codemasters >:(.....

this is a happy ending

KungKras (on 13 August 2009)

Bah, we still have Dice, and that is all that matters :)

Battlefield>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Everything that grin has ever made.

Salnax (on 13 August 2009)

Good Bye and Good Riddance!

Slimebeast (on 13 August 2009)

All of Grin's games were low quality in my opinion.
Grin wasn't a top 5 developer in Sweden, because we also have DICE, Avalanche, Paradox, Massive and Starbreeze, and they all make better games than Grin ever did.

SnesTea (on 13 August 2009)

Also, that logo is creepy as hell.

SnesTea (on 13 August 2009)

Ubisoft Paris made the game. Some other company did multiplayer. All GRIN did was port it to PC.

.jayderyu (on 13 August 2009)

I'm sorry to hear about this. I really don't like hearing this kind of news. On the other hand i'm glad it happens. To be blunt most developers have fallen into a death spiral habit. Reliance on publishers to fund and publish games.

This reliance on publishers means that your game has to be special to sell well otherwise the next game you make will be less inclined to be published or funded. Part of the problem is that publishers like to control the product. Sometimes for the better or worse of the game.

Companies like GRIN(ok maybe not specifically GRIN) do not have the capital to make a game on their own. Clearly after their last game not selling well publishers were not interested in the company. So no funding, no operation.

A company that can make their own game has a stronger bargaining power as to the amount of money they get back on return if the publisher is used for exactly that. Publishing. See where I'm coming from.

So it's not about just sub par developers. It's that the entire gaming business practise is flawed. What's happening now is the flaw starting to crack bigger and will eventually break.

Good is all I have to say. Though I feel sorry for people who have to suffer that aren't part of the businnes planning.

megaman79 (on 13 August 2009)

If only they knew T4 was going to suck and that Wanted dev. dude was going to embarress the company by talking down the Wii.

Kantor (on 13 August 2009)

This recession really seems to be weeding out subpar developers (and Free Radical ;_;)

Burning Typhoon (on 13 August 2009)

At least they didn't screw rearmed up... I can't say that I care, though

ssj12 (on 12 August 2009)

the sad part is that Bionic Commando failed. Its actually a pretty decent game. Its just the modern gamers hate games that arent the same thing over and over again.

averyblund (on 12 August 2009)

Sad to see, Wanted was a blast despite being a 3 hour long ripoff. If you choose to go HD you better be able to go up against the big boys. Another studio learns this the hard way.

CDiablo (on 12 August 2009)

Sucks, Bionic Commando Rearmed is awesome. HD gaming claims another victim.

TheTruthHurts! (on 12 August 2009)

Always a bummer when a studio closes it's doors, however, I am sure the talent will find new work elsewhere.

Barozi (on 12 August 2009)

They just made the PC versions of GRAW.
But no those weren't just ports. Both GRAW games are different to their console counterparts.

famousringo (on 12 August 2009)

Three strikes, you're out. :/

Hephaestos (on 12 August 2009)

wait they didn't do GRAW? just ported it to PC from 360 is that it?

ok so their closure is pretty much a non event ^^

lesson to studios: if you're short on cash, stop releasing costly HD games that get bashed for their 4h playthrough...

Aion (on 12 August 2009)

No i loved the Graw series. It's horrible those games flopped. They will be missed.

SHMUPGurus (on 12 August 2009)

This sucks. A studio that had lots of potential after Bionic Commando Rearmed (disolitude just doesn't like dying more than once in video games, haha), but had to manage with licensed crap like Wanted and Terminator...

I hope we're still getting a sequel to Bionic Commando though. :/

Avarice28 (on 12 August 2009)

Wow! they should have "been" out of business with how crappy most of their games were. And seeing how they did not actually "make" both of the GRAW games themselves they really had no games of any worth.

disolitude (on 12 August 2009)

Didnt like a single game they made... I bought bionic commando rearmed...and have ZERO gamerscore points, thats howmuch i liked it. So I understand...