Sunstorm Interactive closes shop

Former Sunstorm Interactive producer Tom Shiflet recently announced on the Hunter's Realm Forums that the Indianapolis-based developer had laid off its entire staff. Best known as the creator of Deer Hunter, Sunstorm also created last year's 3D side scroller Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project and, earlier, a couple of expansion packs for Dukem Nukem 3D and Blood. However, it was the Deer Hunter games that defined Sunstorm as the pioneer of the hunting game genre and of value-priced games.

Shiflet suggested two reasons for the downfall of Sunstorm: a decline in sales revenue for value games and the emergence of foreign developers with lower overhead costs. "Unfortunately, the game industry has changed a lot in the past few years," said Shiflet. "The value category that Sunstorm helped to define has seen a decrease in sales but an increase in the expectations for games. It's very hard for a big American company paying high salaries and high rent to compete with companies from Europe or South America or even other, smaller companies in the US." Shiflet notes that despite the layoffs, a new patch for Deer Hunter 2003 is still in the works and will be shipped to Infogrames soon. He also hints that the franchise has been passed over to a different, unnamed developer.