Over the past few days, rumors have been swirling that Warhammer Quest and Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch developer Rodeo Games had shut down. Various reports suggested that poor sales “forced” the studio to close. Those stories are not accurate, though Rodeo is “taking a break.”
News first emerged via a member of the Touch Arcade forums who worked for the studio. The information was then reported by a number of sites (here, here, here, and here), though Rodeo tells us that it was never approached for comment until we made contact.
We reached a Rodeo Games representative who did confirm that a number of staff left the studio in November. But the core team is still working, and the remaining staff felt compelled to address the studio’s recent stint in the news. The following statement was provided by a Rodeo representative:
Due to inaccurate reports in the press over the last few days and the questions we’ve received regarding the future of Rodeo we thought it was best we update everyone to let you know what’s been happening. As reported some of the team left the studio back in November, after we’d shipped the iOS and PC versions of Deathwatch. Since then the core team have been working on new platforms for Deathwatch, one of which we’ll be announcing shortly!
Despite Deathwatch being the best game we’ve created as a studio and our highest rated Metacritic game, the changes in market have meant that we are unable to continue development as we’d initially planned. Coupled with some personal issues within the team, Rodeo Games are currently taking a break from developing any new titles. The team will continue to support our existing titles.
We’d like to thank all our fans, especially those who have followed us since the beginning. We’d also like to say a huge thank you to the Games Workshop team who were kind enough to trust us with their IP and have supported us hugely over the last few years. Without them, we wouldn’t have enjoyed the commercial and critical success of the last 3 years.
We'll announce our plans for future releases at the appropriate time. We intend to carry on making the games we love, for the people who love them.
We understand that all of those let go in November have found full-time employment. In addition to the Warhammer games, Rodeo has also released well-received mobile strategy games Hunters and Hunters 2.
Both Warhammer Quest and Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch are available on iOS and PC via Steam.
Note: We have corrected the platforms for which Warhammer Quest and Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch are available. We regret the error.
Our Take
I’ve enjoyed Rodeo’s work, and both the digital adaptation of Games Workshop board game Warhammer Quest and the recent Deathwatch title are in regular rotation on my iOS devices. I’m glad to hear that the studio is continuing to support its games and that there is the possibility of more games coming.