So it would appear that Ice Pick Lodge, the creator of such fine games as Cargo - The Quest for Gravity, has had mass layoffs.

Now, I have no idea what manner of uncivilized ribcage that Pathologic 2 was, as it seems to have a glowing reception here; the problem seems to lie with their other games, such as Knock, Knock.

Having recently watched a series by Jeff Vogel, who's been in this sort of industry longer than many have been alive even, it's strange to watch a formerly successful company struggle like this.

Pathologic 2 got a fairly glowing review by Mandalore. I myself haven't gotten around to Pathologic 1, it seems stressful and like I would need a lot of free time to get into it.

Shame to hear about a reportedly quality studio not doing so well.

Now that's a big shame. I greatly enjoyed Pathologic 2, as I did with the original version, even with the atrocious translation. The atmosphere and story are top-notch. As for the survival elements, they're not so bad once you understand the strange economy of dumpster-diving for trash and trading with little kids for drugs. Every in-game day I managed to complete every quest while keeping my character fed, hydrated and reasonably well-rested. Sure, there were some sticky situations and urgency, but these just add to the desperate atmosphere. I don't know what people have been complaining about.

It's a shame as Pathologic had to be one of the most unique games ever made. On the other hand I don't think the way the game was released did them any favours. Eg, only 1 of 3 chars (Haruspex) was made with the other promised for the future that seemed to be based on "hopefully the game will sell well enough that we might get around to making the other two and might even give them out as free DLC" hinting that if early sales don't do too well, the risk is there to end up with only 1/3rd of an unfinished game which of course causes a lot of people to hold back and wait until it's finished which then brings a "self-fulfilling prophecy" of lower early sales...

Not really surprising, Pathlogic games don't seem to be designed to even be fun, they have this aura of uncomfortable weirdness which is obviously intentional. They have worth in an artistic sense, but they are essentially doomed to be commercial failures.

I don't know why, but I was under the (wrong?) impression that Path 2 was not well rated, but apparently I was wrong, possibly I mixed it up with some other game where the sequel sucked a lot, especially as I though that the development team has been changed or something...

So I put it into my wishlist then, just so that I remember during sales that it is not a bad game (apparently).

Eurojank is a hella of thing

A million times this. I think Pathologic 1 is excellent and was so on-board for 2, but when I learned about the missing characters it gave me pause which it otherwise wouldn't have. I would have preferred they marketed it as just a more focused experience with 1 character, without this possibly false hope of the others being added later. It is important to many consumers to have the game feel complete. A complete smaller experience can be preferable to a "living game."

Well companies crumbling is not uncommon especially in super competitive market like video game industry. For example I love Hawken but it crumbled after several solid years due to mismanagement and bad game updates

This is worth noting regarding this situation (if your russian is better than mine, please do feel free to seek the original source and link it / translate)

https://twitter.com/DroogButNice/status/1164962373972692993

I wish more people would invest in "weird" games instead of Shooter Game No. 2284.

There's more than enough weird games to fill an entire breadbasket. You just haven't been looking in the right places, like Itch.io.

The twitter guy's translation is already accurate, adjusting for his bad English.

TL;DR the interview which apprears to be the source for the OP (that's on the OP, I don't care about scene gossip) is three months old, and people who are seeing "we're closing tomorrow" between the lines are obviously wrong, as "tomorrow" was three months ago and the studio is open.

I agree, there's a lot out there, just people don't invest in them. Most people who buy video games play shooters and or sports exclusively.

I feel that "play" may be an exaggeration at some junctures. Unless one counts pulling the lever on a slot machine or gatchapon machine as "play".