Midsummer Studios shuts down, reveals unreleased life sim Burbank

Midsummer Studios shuts down, reveals its unreleased game

Midsummer Studios, the life sim developer founded by former Firaxis creative director Jake Solomon, has abruptly closed. Solomon announced the closure in a post on X, where he also shared the first public gameplay footage of the studio's unreleased game, Burbank.

"We built a studio, we made a game, and I'm really proud of both," Solomon wrote. He described the project as "Life Sims + The Truman Show," designed to let players create and share their own character-driven stories.

The short life of a promising studio

Solomon left Firaxis in 2023 after a 23-year career where he led design on the XCOM reboot and 2022's Marvel's Midnight Suns. He founded Midsummer Studios in 2024 with a clear pivot from turn-based strategy to narrative life simulation.

The studio launched with $6 million in funding from venture capital partners and Korean publisher Krafton. Despite this, the closure comes less than two years after its founding was publicly announced.

Public signs of trouble were scarce. The studio's social media was quiet, but its LinkedIn celebrated a Nasdaq listing and a "Game Changer" award from GamesBeat in December 2025. Solomon's last major X post before the closure was celebrating the 10-year anniversary of XCOM 2 on February 6th.

Funding likely ran out

The most probable cause for the shutdown is a lack of capital. Developing a new, complex life sim is expensive, and recent funding efforts appear to have fallen short.

An SEC filing from November 2025 showed Midsummer secured just $600,000 in new investment, a sum described by the original report as "walking around money" for a game development studio. This suggests a critical larger funding round failed to materialize, leaving the studio unable to continue.

Key details about the studio's financial situation include:

• Initial 2024 funding: $6 million from VCs and Krafton.
• November 2025 funding: A $600,000 investment round.
• The studio was actively pursuing new funding at the time of its closure.

A look at the game that never will be

The released two-minute gameplay video shows Burbank in a pre-alpha state with placeholder text-to-speech voices. The concept aimed to blend life simulation with guided, player-driven narratives, a middle ground between pure sandbox and scripted games.

Solomon had previously explained the game's ambitious systems in a 2024 interview. He described an NPC generation system inspired by the complex simulations of Dwarf Fortress, designed to make characters feel alive and reactive to player stories.

Generative AI was a core part of the design for character speech, memory, and reasoning. This was intended to allow for fully voiced, emergent narratives that would be impossible with traditional voice acting. Solomon clarified on X that AI was only used for character systems, not art, stating, "We had no interest in replacing *any* developers with AI."

A project cut short

The debate over AI in game development is now moot for Midsummer. The studio will not bring Burbank to market, leaving the gameplay trailer as its only public legacy.

Solomon ended his announcement on a bittersweet note, expressing pride in his team's work. "This game was a dream of mine," he wrote. "Our team made it come true, so watch and dream with us."

The closure highlights the harsh financial realities of starting a new game studio, even with an experienced founder and initial venture backing. For now, Burbank remains a dream that players will never get to experience firsthand.