Stray Souls Developer Shuts Down, Cites Poor Reception And Cyberbullying

Stray Souls developer Jukai Studio is shutting down. The studio cited poor sales and reception of its debut game, as well as cyberbullying.

"We are aware that you had high expectations for Stray Souls, but we never informed you that only two core individuals, along with contracted personnel, were working on the game," Jukai Studio explained in a statement last month.

"We did everything in our power to bring the project to completion in the best possible for, but throughout the duration, we, our publisher, staff, other publisher dev teams, and our close ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor, and some of you, as our community, were also tormented with unwanted messages and emails."

Jukai Studio stated that it could not provide any further details about the cyberbullying matter as it is now in the hands of lawyers. However, Jukai Studio also said that it wouldn't abandon the issue despite the closure.

Jukai Studio isn't the only studio that closed in December. Firewall Ultra developer First Contact Entertainment shut down last month due to the general lack of virtual reality support within the video games industry.

Stray Souls is an action-horror game and was released on October 25, 2023, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It was poorly received, earning a score of 31 on Metacritic.