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Ex-Prytania boss explains Crop Circle closure

Ex-Prytania boss explains Crop Circle closure

The former CEO of Prytania Media, Annie Delisi Strain, has said that the project Crop Circle Games was working on could not attract investment.

In a post on the studio's now-offline sitespotted by GI.biz – the ex boss said that the developer had a load of talented staff and had received "kind words" from potential partners, Crop Circle's title was seemingly not what the industry wanted now.

"The Crop Circle team was incredibly likable, their chemistry and enthusiasm for each other absolutely delightful, and the game had a whimsy and playfulness that was hard not to root for. I loved this team and the game beyond measure," Strain wrote.

"In the end, despite the kind words of everyone we pitched to for two solid years, the game did not have core features that have emerged as requirements to be competitive in today’s hyper-aggressive market. I know it’s painful for all us who love the game and this extraordinary team to acknowledge, but the game was just fundamentally out of touch with emerging player tastes and not aligned with the portfolio strategies of any publishers or investors. As a result, in contrast to our other studios, there was not a single organisation of any kind willing to invest in continued game development."

Prytania Media closed Crop Circle at the end of March 2024


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.