Chinese Room shuts its doors for now

The developer behind Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is going dark for a while, the studio has confirmed. The Chinese Room isn’t shutting down completely, director Dan Pinchbeck reassured fans in a blog post on the company’s website, but it won’t be actively working on any specified projects over the next few months.

Pinchbeck cited increasing costs as one of the main factors in its decision to go quiet: "To cut a long story short, the situation – between financial pressures, trying to keep the lights on for the employed team, the stress of end-of-development, health issues – just wasn’t a tenable thing anymore. It was time to take a break, recharge, recover and have a good think about the future," Pinchbeck wrote in a blog post.

"So we let our team go. Lay-offs are never pleasant, particularly when you’re all trying to wrap a game. We did our best to try and help the team secure new positions, and then we all – the whole team – threw everything we had at wrapping the game."

In the mean time, the studio’s games will remain on sale, including merchandise, soundtracks and its upcoming Dear Esther tour in November will also still be going ahead.

"Is it the end of The Chinese Room? No, I don’t think so. But it’s the end of a chapter, and we hope you can all be patient with us whilst we figure out what happens next," Pinchbeck ended.