Failbetter Games Ltd is a British
video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
and
interactive fiction
Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...
studio based in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
History
Founded in 2009 by
Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt, Failbetter is chiefly known for its ''
Fallen London'' Victorian Gothic franchise (comprising, to date, the ''Fallen London'' and ''Silver Tree'' browser games and the ''
Sunless Sea,'' ''
Sunless Skies'' and ''
Mask of the Rose'' video games), which has garnered a
cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
. Failbetter was also commissioned by
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American ...
to build a browser-game prologue for ''
Dragon Age: Inquisition'', and by UK publisher
Harvill Secker to create a puzzle game to accompany ''
The Night Circus''.
The studio has consistently won acclaim for the quality of its writing, world-building and storytelling.
In 2016,
Alexis Kennedy left Failbetter, citing a desire to work with a variety of other studios and work on his own smaller, more experimental projects.
In February 2017, Failbetter ran a successful Kickstarter for a sequel to ''Sunless Sea'', ''Sunless Skies'', raising almost half a million dollars. However, December that same year Failbetter unexpectedly laid off four members of staff, citing the under-performance of the ''Sunless Sea''
iPad
The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...
port, and poor sales of their ''
Sunless Skies'' in
early access
Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...
.
Failbetter was subsequently the target of an extensive but inconclusive investigative report by
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network.
In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
, which cited Kennedy and other unnamed staff in claiming poor management and a 'toxic' culture had developed since Kennedy's departure.
GamesIndustry.biz awarded Failbetter Games for being one of the best places to work in the games industry in the UK in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
On 8 June 2023 Failbetter released a romantic visual novel set in the ''Fallen London'' universe called ''
Mask of the Rose'', which is a prequel to the other games in the franchise.
Games developed
References
External links
*
{{Failbetter Games
Companies based in the London Borough of Southwark
Video game companies established in 2010
Video game companies of the United Kingdom
Video game development companies