Tag Archives: grin

Concept art and a video from a purported remake of Strider along with concept art from the cancelled Final Fantasy: Fortress have surfaced over on the Spanish site Anait Games. According to site, the assets were sent over by a former Grin Barcelona employee which worked at the firm before it was shuttered in 2009. The employee stated when the Final Fantasy game was cancelled, the firm started working with Ubisoft on financing “the game formerly known as Strider” and was in talks with Capcom, and working on a new Streets of Rage game. Sadly, none of the titles were to see the light of day, as GRIN is now no more. You can check out a video of what was the firm’s Strider reboot below, and look over the rest of the concept art from Fortress, which has a decidedly Noric feel to it, through the link.Thanks, Victor.

More »

Mega Man creator and former big wig over at Capcom, Keiji Inafune said that a bad working relationship with GRIN caused some oddities in Bionic Commando.
More »

The founders of GRIN are blaming Square Enix for a significant portion of the events leading up to the studio’s bankruptcy in 2009 and subsequent closure.

More »

In what must be the umpteenth studio opening since the demise of Swedish developer GRIN last year, former staff have set up “Whiteout”.

More »

Former members of the Bionic Commando Rearmed team announced this week that a new studio called Might and Delight has been created by the ex-GRIN staffers.

More »

A video has appeared on YouTube apparently showing GRIN’s canned Final Fantasy project.

More »

GI’s rumouring that GRIN’s ill-fated Final Fantasy project was in fact taken away from the Swedish developer before it collapsed – and that it’s still in the works.

The site reckons that “sources close to both parties” have confirmed the game’s survival, saying it’s “still in development by publisher Square Enix”.

Through the link for the full thing.

Some more art has surfaced from Grin’s canceled Final Fantasy project.

Most are posted over on the ConceptArt forums, and they are rather lovely to look at.

You can head over there, or just hit up Kotaku.

GRIN founders Bo and Ulf Andersson announced today on the firm’s official website that due to cash flow issues it must close its doors.

“It is with a heavy heart we announce today that GRIN has been forced to close its doors. This, as too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation,” read the statement.

“After twelve years of hard work, employing hundreds of wonderfully talented men and women, it is over.

“It has been a great adventure and the GRIN family has experienced what few have.

“Looking back at twelve years of games, titles such as Ballistics, Bandits, GRAW 1 & 2, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation, Bionic Commando and our unreleased masterpiece that we weren’t allowed to finish; it has been a great ride.”

How very sad.

More through the link.

Former Grin staffers led by Peter Bjorklund have formed Outbreak Studios, which will focus on the creation of digital games for Xbox Live, GWL, PSN, PSPgo, and iPhone.

The twenty five former employees most recently worked on Terminator Salvation, Bionic Commando and Wanted: Weapons of Fate.

Bjorklund was previously responsible for DICE’s network engines for the Battlefield games.

Rumors surfaced this week that Grin studios in Barcelona and Gothenburg have closed, with the fate of the Stockholm location up in the air.

Grin has refused to comment on any of the studio closures.

Via GI.biz.

GRIN has just refused to comment on overnight talk that it’s in danger of closing.

“At the moment we have no comment to anything [related to] that matter,” said a rep for the Swedish developer.

When pushed, the response became flatter.

“No,” said the spokesperson when asked if they could confirm any truth in the initial report.

“We’re not commenting.”

Another staffer told VG247 that all GRIN staff returned from a vacation yesterday. If this Gamasutra report is to be believed, they were met with bad news.

The story said that the Bionic Commando developer has seen “significant layoffs” and may be “facing difficulty staying afloat.”

GRIN’s Barcelona and Gothenburg offices have now apparently closed. Gama sources claim the company’s main Stockholm office may also be in jeopardy.

The company was rumoured to have laid off between 100-160 staff in May, following Bionic Commando’s release.

Gama’s reporting that Bionic Commando developer GRIN has seen “significant layoffs” and may be “facing difficulty staying afloat.”

The news comes from “reliable development sources,” apparently.

The company was rumoured to have laid off between 100-160 staff in May, following Bionic Commando’s release.

Bionic Commando has arrived on Steam.

The PC version will run you $39.99 and there is also a bundle up for grabs which includes the game plus Bionic Commando: Rearmed for $44.99.

More details are through the link.

Whoops. NPD’s confirmed to Gama that Capcom’s Bionic Commando only managed 27,000 unit sales in the US in May, its debut month.

The reboot shipped on May 19. That figure’s a total score across both 360 and PS3.

Nicht so gut. Hit is for more.

Kotaku’s rumouring that Bionic Commando developer GRIN’s dropped between 100 and 160 staff, citing “multiple sources”.

The firm, which has offices in Sweden, Spain and Indonesia, is rumored to be in the process of shuttering its Gothenburg and Barcelona-based sites.

Layoffs at its headquarters in Stockholm are rumored to amount to nearly 30.

Full thing through the link.

Sales data released from the NPD Group shows that videogames with film tie-ins saw a dramatic sales decrease this year in the US.

According to an article in the L.A. Times, the downward slope for the top franchises for the year had varying factors leading to underwhelming retail performance.

• Activision and DreamWork’s Monsters vs. Aliens has sold just 161,000 units since March 2.

• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, while critically acclaimed, sold around 100,000 units and the less than stellar performance can be blamed being bounced around during the Activision Vivendi merger.

• Disney’s Hannah Montana: The Movie sold just 65,000 units during it’s first three weeks. The article notes that “inexpensive video games aimed at girls, traditionally the foundation of Disney Interactive’s strategy, aren’t consistently hits.”

• Grin’s Wanted: Weapons of Fate has sold only 100,000 units since its launch on March 24 and NPD says that delaying the game for quality reasons, putting it being released much later than the film, had loads to do with the poor sales.

• The Godfather II has sold 241,000 units with the Xbox 360 version taking the fifth spot on the April top ten, but compared to the original game selling 4 million units worldwide, the figures are undesirable.

NPD says that movie tie-ins  have always been a reliable form of sales for publishers, and while Europe has also seen a decline in the sales for the niche, the firm’s unsure if this is a trend or just current market fluctuations.

Thanks, GI.biz.

IGN has posted a new video for Terminator: Salvation showing off the rail sequences.

Basically you will get an idea of what it’s like to be shooting from a moving vehicle while things are trying to blow you to mushy bits.

Best trailer for the game yet, we think. Just because it’s hectic. We like hectic.

Grin’s shooter is out in May for PC, 360 and PS3.

More »

Capcom’s put out another trailer for Bionic Commando, this one showing off the game’s general combat. Get it after the break.

The third-person actioner’s out on May 19 in the US, June 25 in Japan and May 22 in Europe.

Thanks, Kotaku.

More »

Joystiq has posted a new video for Terminator: Salvation showing off a bit of co-op gameplay.

Kind of gave us a bit of a headache watching it, but judge for yourself.

Grin’s shooter is out in May for PC, 360 and PS3.

Hit he jump for the video.
More »

Capcom’s put out a new trailer for the soon-to-be-released Bionic Commando, and it’s fair to say the game’s looking officially “better” than it used to. A good thing.

The movie shows off abilities of our hero’s robot arm, and it looks as though a ton of work’s been done on general presentation. Hooray for that.

It’s out in May.

More »