'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture' creator goes 'dark'

The Chinese Room, the developers behind award-winners like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, has revealed that it's "going dark" for the months ahead. The company isn't shutting entirely, but it quietly laid off its team after finishing its new title So Let Us Melt and won't be a "fully active" firm "for the time being." As co-founder Dan Pinchbeck explains, it's really a combination of factors that prompted the decision. Pinchbeck makes no bones about Chinese Room's bottom line: there were "financial pressures" that included keeping the full team running. Add Pinchbeck's own health concerns and the usual stress of wrapping development on a game (many studios are all too familiar with crunch time), and it was clear that it was time to have a "good think about the future." Right now, just three people are working on upcoming titles like The 13th Interior and Little Orpheus.