Liquid Swords, the studio behind Samson, is closing after a Stockholm court declared it bankrupt

Christofer Sundberg confirmed on 19 October that the Swedish studio is shutting. It was declared bankrupt on 12 October after staff went unpaid, and the trustee has put Samson's IP up for sale.

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Liquid Swords, the Stockholm studio founded in 2020 by Just Cause creator and Avalanche Studios co-founder Christofer Sundberg, is closing. Sundberg confirmed it in a post on 19 October 2026, a week after a Swedish court declared the company bankrupt. Its only released game, the open-city crime brawler Samson, came out on PC in April.

"Liquid Swords is closing its doors," Sundberg wrote, in a post quoted by Destructoid. "I've done everything I can to make this succeed, and I'm very proud of what we achieved together." The console versions, the post says, met with much greater success than the PC release: "We got them out, but that success wasn't enough to get the company across the finish line."

Bankrupt since 12 October

The paperwork came first. According to a notice from the law firm Cirio, Stockholm District Court declared Liquid Swords AB bankrupt on 12 October and appointed Cirio's Karl Björlin as trustee. The estate offered the business and its assets for sale, mainly the intellectual property rights tied to Samson, with indicative bids due in writing by noon on 21 October.

Inven Global, citing the Swedish outlet Breakit, reports that staff had gone at least two months without pay and filed for the bankruptcy themselves. The remaining 27 employees are being laid off, with unpaid wages expected to be covered by Sweden's state wage guarantee. Employment contracts would not move across automatically to whoever buys the assets. The studio had already cut about half its staff the year before.

A rough launch and a better one

Samson launched on Steam and the Epic Games Store on 8 April, priced at $24.99 according to KeenGamer, and reached PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on 21 September. Reviews were mixed. Inven Global gives a Metacritic critic score of 51, with technical problems and bugs among the complaints, and Destructoid notes that the PC version peaked at 2,722 concurrent players on Steam in April. A PC update went out on 8 October, four days before the bankruptcy ruling.

Sundberg has been open about the causes, blaming "market conditions and some bad business decisions". The post says Sundberg can "look honestly at what went wrong and still be proud of what we built", and thanks everyone who worked at the studio and played the game. It also makes clear this is not Sundberg's last company: "I refuse to give up. I never give up."

What happens to Samson now is the open question for people who own it. Sundberg said talks are under way with all parties involved about continued support for the game, but no agreement has been announced. The bid deadline set by the trustee has passed, and none of the reports we have read say who, if anyone, has bought the rights.

Sources

Image: Image: Liquid Swords, via Destructoid

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