It’s pretty safe to say that the video game industry has been in a weird place for several years now, but for Christofer Sundberg, who has been at this for a long time, the state of the video game industry is in an unprecedentedly poor place. Founder of Avalanche Studios and creator of Just Cause, Sundberg is getting ready to release his next major game with his new studio he founded in 2020, Liquid Swords, which’ll release Samson: A Tyndalston Story this coming April 8, 2026.
Ahead of Sundberg and Liquid Swords showing off their new title and announcing its release date during today’s IGN Fan Fest, I got the chance to attend a presentation about Samson along with a few other members of the press, before spending some time playing the game. You can check out my impressions on all of that here.
Afterwards, I also got the chance to ask Sundberg and Liquid Swords’ senior game designer and mission designer for Samson, Donald Young, a bunch of questions about the upcoming game. Within that interview, I also asked a more pointed question about the realities of the modern video game industry, and how Liquid Swords is set up for the long term. That’s when Sundberg laid into his thoughts on the current market and how he sees things.
“I’ve been making games for over three decades and never experienced such a desperate, cowardly (they call it ‘risk averse’) and confused state of the business,” Sundberg said. “After the acquisition / over-investing party during ‘21-’23, we are dealing with the hangover and it’s been going on for three years.”
Sundberg continued by explaining how he has personally invested in the foundation of Liquid Swords, so not only does he have his personal finances at stake, but he also understands the more important factor is the future of the studio and its ability to keep a team of developers together.
He also cites NetEase, which invested in Liquid Swords in 2021, as a partner that has significantly helped Liquid Swords get to the point it’s at now, where it is inching closer to releasing its debut game. But the studio isn’t taking anything for granted, and is doing what it can to keep the lights on, which Sundberg admitted also included laying off half of the team at Liquid Swords to make sure they could get Samson out the door.
“We have very careful cash-flow planning as we are on a limited budget. Last year, we made the tough decision to lay off (I don’t call it ‘restructuring’ or any other BS term for what it actually is) half the team, to buy us a longer runway into 2026. We made a bet, and we do everything we can to deliver a fun $25 experience to lay the foundation for the future. I hope our future players will see the potential in our work and follow us on our journey to make something bigger.”
We can’t know when the industry will get over the “hangover” it’s been dealing with, which has resulted in countless studio shutdowns and thousands of developers losing their jobs over the last few years, but Sundberg is right on the money with how the industry is incredibly ‘risk-averse’ right now. One of the key takeaways from Matthew Ball’s State of Video Gaming 2026 report was how private investment in the industry continues to decline.
Even though we’re still getting some great games to play, the best gaming experiences always come from creators trying something new, and that means taking risks. Creatives understand how important it is to take risks. Hopefully, the bean counters of the industry will start to understand that more as well.
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