11 Bit Studiosis the group behind several notable projects -Frostpunk,This War Of Mine, and something special that might’ve made the Polish government very upset.
It’s already upset the studio’s investors quite a bit - dropping a cool 12 million dollars down the drain is going to do that.
In the wake of 11 Bit’s cancellation of “Project 8”, several big investors are filing complaint after complaint about a lack of transparency at the company.
In a postdirected at investors, 11 Bit detailed why Project 8 had to be canceled, blaming shifts in “market conditions” against the kind of narrative experience they were building, among other factors.
This kind of sentiment was, apparently, too much too quickly. 11 Bit expressed confidence in the project as recently as September 2024; their tune only changed in December 2024 (Thanks,80.LV).
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Poland’s Association of Individual Investors publicly rebuked Project 8’s cancellation, arguing that there’s no way 11 Bit’s confidence in Project 8 should have changed this drastically, this quickly, without deliberately misleading those who helped fund the $12 million project.
That was back in January. Since then, the situation has… grown.
Repeated calls for transparency - from investors and journalists alike - have been met with less-than-satisfying responses (assuming they responded at all). A statement from the Association of Individual Investors was released in May, demanding full transparency from the game studio. Further concerns were raised in a June meeting, asking questions that 11Bit refused to answer unless they were “submitted in writing.”
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The matter has since escalated to Poland’s government. Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority has been roped in, asked to follow up on legal violations. 11 Bit Studios has obligations to its investors, and as far as ‘disclosure’ goes, 11 Bit allegedly hasn’t been holding up its end of the bargain.
Considering the massive sum of money at stake, it’s no surprise that people are a little miffed. Sometimes, investments don’t pay off - but when the info about a project has been twisted into something false, you start playing outside the realm of simple risk.
Is it possible that 11 Bit Studios went from “full steam ahead!” to “shut it down!” in well under a year? Perhaps, but that’s something that may need documentation to prove. Lacking it casts the whole situation in a suspicious light.
11Bit’s No Stranger To Leaving Important Info Unsaid
This isn’t the first time 11 Bit Studios has been in trouble for a lack of disclosure. They got caught by the controversy bug when ChatGPT prompts were found in 11 Bit’s latest release:The Alters. The use of generative AI in the final product was not disclosed, something thatSteam’s platform requires.
These inclusions were, according to 11 Bit,accidental leftovers from development, though statements like that were largely ineffective in the face of torches and pitchforks.
If 11 Bit has a history of not disclosing things they really oughta mention, then that’s not a good sign for this potential government intervention. Making the internet mad is one thing. But making investors mad - investors that are now 12 million dollars in the hole - that’s another beast entirely.
