Studio formed by Blizzard, SOE, Relic veterans shuts down

Molten Games, a studio formed by former Blizzard Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment, and Relic Entertainment executives has shut down and canceled its game, according to former employees.

A source at Molten Games told Polygon that all 60 employees received the news of the closure and that they were being let go on March 24, 2014. The same source said that the decision seemed abrupt since feedback on the project they working until then was good.

Art director Billy Ahlswede has posted some art he was working on for what was called Project Blunderbuss to his blog, and also linked to a YouTube video of the game.

“I had the pleasure of art directing an amazing team on Project Blunderbuss at Molten Games,” Ahlswede said. “The project was cancelled but here is the footage of that game as it stands.”

Molten Games’ Director of Technology Joshua Kriegshauser also linked to an Alpha gameplay video on his Twitter on March 29.

When it was announced, Molten Games said it was working on a AAA online game made possible in part by a multimillion-dollar investment led by Guild Wars publisher NCSoft.