6 years after successfully crowdfunding a game about orphans in a cyberpunk warzone, the studio making it has closed: 'We've been so close to a release, several times, and there's a lot to regret after all the work done'

Orphan Age screenshot.

There's a bit of unintended irony in our 2018 preview of Orphan Age, a life-sim game about orphans attempting to survive in the midst of a cyberpunk warzone. "Not sure this one will have a happy ending," we said at the time, a reference to the game's grim premise that turned out to be prescient in an unexpected way.

A demo for Orphan Age was released in 2019 but a full early access launch never happened, and now it never will. Studio Black Flag, the developer, has announced that following a split with its publisher, funding has dried up and the studio has ceased operations.