PixelOpus was an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

, It was established in 2014 as an in-house studio for

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game industry, video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is ma ...

. The studio's debut game, '' Entwined'', was released the same year. Their second and ultimately last game, ''

Concrete Genie ''Concrete Genie'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Pixelopus and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game was announced at Sony's PlayStation Media Showcase at Paris Games Week 2017 on October 30, ...

'', was announced on 30 October 2017 and released on 8 October 2019. In May 2023, it was announced that the studio would be closing on June 2, 2023.

History

In 2012, SIE's Foster City Studio (now known as

San Mateo Studio PlayStation Studios (formerly SCE Worldwide Studios and SIE Worldwide Studios) is a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE Worl ...

) product development group decided to work with small development teams following the success of ''

Journey Journey or journeying may refer to: * Travel, the movement of people between distant geographical locations ** Day's journey, a measurement of distance ** Road trip, a long-distance journey on the road Animals * Journey (horse), a thoroughbred ra ...

'' (2012) developed by the small studio,

Thatgamecompany Thatgamecompany, Inc. (stylized as thatgamecompany) is an American independent video game development company founded by University of Southern California students Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago in 2006. The company was a developer for Sony Co ...

, and published by

Santa Monica Studio Santa Monica Studio is an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. A First-party developer, first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment, it is best known for developing the ''God of War (franchise), God of War'' series. Th ...

. Soon after, SIE's Foster City sponsored a game development program for students at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. They provided

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

s for students to experiment with; Foster City were jubilant with students' ability in to rapidly prototype game ideas. In July 2013, Foster City offered six students from the development program at the Carnegie Mellon University and three students from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

. Additionally, a pair of industry veterans were hired to lead the 9-man team, forming PixelOpus. Dominic Robilliard is the

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

at PixelOpus. On May 5, 2023, PixelOpus announced through their Twitter that the studio would be shutting down. In a statement to

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

, Sony confirmed that it would be closing to studio on June 2, 2023, as it "regularly evaluates its portfolio and the status of studio projects to ensure they meet the organization’s short and long-term strategic objectives. As part of a recent review process, it has been decided that PixelOpus will close on June 2".

Games

References

PlayStation Studios Companies based in San Mateo, California Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2014 2014 establishments in California Defunct companies based in California Defunct video game companies of the United States {{US-videogame-company-stub Video game companies disestablished in 2023 2023 disestablishments in California