Two Months Unpaid and Console Sales That Came Too Late: Just Cause Creator Christofer Sundberg Confirms Liquid Swords Is Closing After Samson
Founded in Stockholm in December 2020 by Christofer Sundberg, co-founder of Avalanche Studios and creator of the Just Cause franchise, independent developer Liquid Swords is permanently shutting its doors this October 2026. Days after the Stockholm District Court issued an official bankruptcy order against the company, Sundberg confirmed that the studio's journey has come to an end.
The closure arrives just six months after the PC debut of Samson: A Tyndalston Story, and barely four weeks after the crime brawler landed on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Despite a stronger commercial showing on consoles, an acute cash-flow crisis proved insurmountable for a team of roughly 30 developers who had gone two months without pay.
Two Months of Unpaid Wages and a Staff-Led Bankruptcy Petition in Stockholm
Financial turbulence had been brewing behind the scenes long before this autumn. Already weakened in early 2025 by a round of layoffs and pulling back of external capital after Chinese tech giant NetEase invested in the studio in 2022, Liquid Swords entered the summer of 2026 with virtually no financial cushion.
According to court filings first detailed by Swedish business publication Breakit, the studio's approximately 30 remaining employees had not received their salaries for at least two months. Left with no alternative, the staff petitioned the Stockholm District Court (Stockholms tingsrätt) for bankruptcy themselves in order to trigger Sweden's state wage guarantee scheme (lönegaranti).
Appointed as bankruptcy trustee, attorney Karl Björlin of the law firm Cirio confirmed that the company suffered from an immediate liquidity shortage. His first task was to formally lay off the remaining workforce so the Swedish state could cover their overdue wages, while simultaneously exploring whether a buyer could be found for the studio's assets and the Samson intellectual property.
From a Stumbling PC Launch to a Console Rebound That Arrived Too Late
Released on April 8, 2026, on Steam at a mid-tier price of $24.99, Samson: A Tyndalston Story pitched a gritty 1990s noir crime drama. Players stepped into the boots of Samson McCray, a hardened wheelman and brawler forced to take on street contracts to pay down a mounting daily debt.
Unfortunately, the initial PC build launched with technical bugs and performance hiccups that dampened word of mouth during a year when Steam's record flood of over 21,388 new releases leaves zero margin for error. Even after the team rolled out stability patches and the free Welcome To The Pit content update, PC revenues fell short of what was needed to sustain operations.
The developers pushed through the summer to deliver the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions on September 21, 2026, complete with every prior patch and balance improvement built in. While console players responded far more warmly than the PC audience, the revenue arrived too late to bridge the studio's burn rate, reflecting the wider economic pressures that recently led other studios to rethink Western development costs.
Christofer Sundberg Owns His Mistakes as Talks Continue Over Samson's Future
With no viable path to keep the company afloat, Christofer Sundberg took to LinkedIn on October 19, 2026, to formally confirm the closure of Liquid Swords. Rather than shifting blame solely onto external factors, the Swedish veteran offered a candid assessment of his own leadership decisions.
"Liquid Swords is closing its doors. I've done everything I can to make this succeed, and I'm very proud of what we achieved together. The console versions met with much greater success than the PC release. We got them out, but that success wasn't enough to get the company across the finish line. Market conditions and some bad business decisions brought us here, and I own my part in that."
Christofer Sundberg, Founder of Liquid Swords (October 19, 2026)
For players who bought into Tyndalston on PC or console, the game's post-launch life may not be completely over. Sundberg noted that discussions are actively underway with all parties involved in Liquid Swords to find a way to continue supporting Samson the way the title deserves.
As for Sundberg himself, he made it clear that he has no intention of walking away from game development. Emphasizing that "we make mistakes, we learn, we fall, we rise up, we move on," he is already laying the groundwork for a new venture built from the ground up with current market realities in mind.
My Take: When the Weight of a Daily Debt Catches Up With Its Own Creators
Walking through the rain-slicked streets of Tyndalston earlier this year, I was struck by how much raw, handcrafted soul the team poured into every alley and bruised knuckle. Beneath its early technical rough edges, Samson rejected the bloated scale of modern open worlds in favor of a tight, oppressive urban drama where every dollar and every street fight carried real weight.
There is a heartbreaking irony in watching thirty artists, programmers, and designers build an entire game around the suffocating pressure of a daily financial debt, only to spend two months working without a paycheck themselves just to get the console ports across the finish line. Their dedication right up to the September 21 launch commands immense respect, and I truly hope Sweden's wage guarantee and ongoing IP discussions give both the developers and their creation the fair outcome they deserve.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
