Vancouver studio Hothead Games closes

Vancouver-based developer Hothead Games has closed 18 years after it was first founded in 2006.

The studio’s president Ian Wilkinson said it took the decision to declare bankruptcy after failing to secure a contract for its latest cross-platform ‘triple-A’ title. Both the mobile and console publishers pulled out of a deal, the former allegedly citing a “change in strategy”.

It’s not clear how many jobs at the studio were impacted. The company’s LinkedIn page states the team is sized between 51 to 200 employees.

Its website stated in March 2023 it had a team of 40+ developers backed by a five person central tech team, as well as marketing, QA and art staff. It called itself one of Canada’s “biggest indie mobile games studios”.

The company’s last official day in business was on December 13th.

Hothead provided a variety of services, including support, co-development and porting for mobile, PC and console projects. Games it worked on include Box Office Tycoon, Hero Hunters, Kill Shot Bravo and Super Hit Baseball.

Hothead history

First founded in 2006, Hothead initially developed downloadable PC and console titles, partnering with web comic Penny Arcade for its early games.

It later decided to focus on developing and publishing premium and then free-to-play mobile titles, before returning to working with partners, creating sports games under the Big Win brand and shooting titles with Rivals at War.

“Subsequently, we started cranking out idle games but frankly were a little late and basically missed this market,” said Wilkinson in a LinkedIn post..

“So again, we went back to our roots, pivoting to work-for-hire and we began porting games to re-establish ourselves as a console developer. We also sub-contracted out to some very large, and very successful companies in the early days of this pivot.

“Fast forward to the last 12 months. We created an amazing playable for an triple-A property and had hoped to secure a contract to develop both mobile and console/PC versions of this game with different publishers. 

“Unfortunately, it took far longer than we expected to secure contracts for these versions of the game. They were both ready to close two weeks ago and then the mobile publisher pulled out due to a change in strategy.

“Two weeks later the console publisher also pulled out. At that point our only remaining option was bankruptcy.”