Home Indie developer behind Deliver Us Mars shuts its doors

Indie developer behind Deliver Us Mars shuts its doors

tl;dr

  • KeokeN, creator of "Deliver Us Mars," shuts down, laying off entire staff due to inability to secure a publisher.
  • Despite critical acclaim and success of previous games, studio failed to find a publisher for the third installment.
  • Fans express sadness on social media, while KeokeN's CEO and managing director vow to rebuild the studio and continue game development.

KeokeN, makers of the acclaimed video game Deliver Us Mars, has ceased operations entirely and laid off its entire staff.

In a post to X on Tuesday, the studio said it was shutting its doors because it couldn’t find any publisher for its ongoing work. The studio said its representatives visited Game Developers Conference 2024 in San Francisco, a convention where publishing deals are often brokered, but came home empty handed.

Deliver Us Mars, which launched in February 2023 for Playstation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X, was well received by game critics and featured in the prestigious Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Network monthly gaming offerings that year, which makes the studio’s closure all the more surprising.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where resources are scarce, players of Deliver Us Mars had to comb the moon’s surface in the first outing, and in the second installment, mined the Red Planet to save humanity.

Deliver Us Mars team laid off

The studio was apparently unable to find a publisher for the  third installment of the “Deliver Us” series, to be called Deliver Us Home.

The first game, Deliver Us the Moon and its sequel, Deliver Us Mars both received very positive ratings on Steam and a host of awards. The series was a cult favorite with fans, who shared their sorrow on social media.

Posts like “Deliver us Moon was a great game. Sad to hear.” from @streamingdeluxe and @DevvyPrince’s “Deliver Us Mars was one of my favorite games I played during 2023. Brought me to tears so many times. This message kills me to read. Like many others, I’ll be eager to support your future projects!”

Despite the news, which adds to a lengthy list of studio layoffs across the past year, KeokeN chief executive Koen Deetman said he and managing director Paul Deetman remained committed to games development. “Paul and I are heavily beat, but far from beaten,” he wrote. “It’s our personal mission to rebuild KeokeN brick by brick like we’ve done before, in the name of our people and to continue the legacy of our games.“

Image: KeokeN Interactive.

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Brian-Damien Morgan
Tech Journalist

Brian-Damien Morgan is an award-winning journalist and features writer. He was lucky enough to work in the print sector for many UK newspapers before embarking on a successful career as a digital broadcaster and specialist. His work has spanned the public and private media sectors of the United Kingdom for almost two decades. Since 2007, Brian has continued to add to a long list of publications and institutions, most notably as Editor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning multiple awards for his writing and digital broadcasting efforts. Brian would then go on to be integral to the Legacy 2014,…

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