Samson sold 151,900 copies; Liquid Swords closes anyway

151,900 copies sold in six months, and still not enough to pay salaries. Liquid Swords, the Swedish studio Christofer Sundberg founded in 2020, is closing its doors. Its only game, Samson, launched on PC on April 8, 2026, then on PS5 and Xbox Series on September 21. The Stockholm court declared the company bankrupt on October 12, and the studio’s assets, including the Samson IP, go up for auction this Wednesday, October 21.

Sundberg co-founded Avalanche Studios and led all four Just Cause games. Liquid Swords was meant to be his independent studio, with a tighter open-world debut built around one city and close-quarters fighting. He had called Samson a « make-or-break » moment for the company, according to Game Rant.

Four sentences on X to close a studio

The announcement fits in a single post from Christofer Sundberg on X on Monday, October 19: « Liquid Swords is closing. Samson did far better on consoles, but it wasn’t enough to save the studio. »

He adds that the team is « discussing continued support for Samson, » then signs off with « I never give up. More soon. » No timeline, no buyer named.

The staff filed for bankruptcy themselves

According to Swedish business outlet Breakit, as reported by Game Rant, it was the employees themselves, unpaid for several months, who petitioned the court for bankruptcy. Kotaku puts the last paycheck in August.

In Stockholm, the district court declared Liquid Swords AB bankrupt on October 12 and appointed a trustee, attorney Karl Björlin of the law firm Cirio. Around thirty people lose their jobs. In Sweden, the state wage guarantee covers part of the wages owed when an employer can no longer pay: that fund, not the company, will compensate the team.

The studio was already living on the edge. In February 2025, it laid off about half its staff, as Push Square reported at the time, to last until launch.

151,900 copies, and the math does not work

The trustee’s sale document, quoted by Game Rant, gives the figures the studio never published. As of October 14, Samson had sold about 151,900 copies across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox, for net revenue of roughly SEK 24.1 million, or $2.4 million.

Do the division: that leaves about SEK 159 per copy, around €14. The game costs €24.99 on Steam, and stores take their cut before the money reaches the studio. That part adds up; the spending on the other side is what crushes it. In 2024, in the middle of development, Liquid Swords lost about SEK 39.3 million. Six months of Samson sales do not even cover two thirds of a single year’s loss.

The game’s Steam page shows 3,616 reviews, 2,012 of them positive, or 56%. Critics were harsher, with a 54 average on OpenCritic. Those scores weigh more because the studio was also its own publisher: no partner to fund a botched launch or buy time. We saw the same gap between critics and players on Gears of War E-Day, but with Microsoft behind it.

The PC version sank the launch

Sundberg’s line about consoles points back to the April launch. As Robert Ramsey notes on Push Square, the April PC release was panned by critics over bugs and performance. Sundberg himself called the game’s launch state « unacceptable, » reports Kotaku.

On paper, the plan held up: fix the game for five months, then ship a clean version on PS5 and Xbox Series to win back trust. It worked, partly. Console sales beat PC. But they arrived in September, when salaries had already stopped in August. A good second launch cannot make up for a failed first one when the bank account is empty.

Liquid Swords assets go to auction Wednesday

The trustee expects indicative bids before noon, Stockholm time, on October 21. Buyers can take the whole company or only some assets, including the rights to Samson. Any buyer will still have to negotiate with NetEase: the Chinese group holds security over part of the game’s assets, notes Game Rant. It took a minority stake in the studio in 2022.

The game stays on sale for now. A bankruptcy does not pull a title from stores, and the estate has every reason to keep Samson alive to get a better price. The latest Steam patch dates from October 8. The next one depends on who buys, and what they plan to do with an IP that has 151,900 players.

Liquid Swords joins a list that keeps growing this fall, after Polyarc’s closure and the layoffs at Heart Machine. Even a studio whose founder made four Just Cause games only got one shot.