French developer Gamr7, which made procedural city creation middleware Urban PAD, has closed after five years of operations. The company is now selling off its technology.
Despite selling more than 1200 licenses to both major clients (e.g. The French Army) and small indie developers over the years, the company says the changing market and last-minute contract cancellations made it impossible to continue.
It said that some of those cancellations were due to the ongoing European debt crisis, which has made it difficult for businesses to obtain loans from banks for their projects. Gamr7 admits that its debt from pivoting its focus from triple-A game development to the Unity/indie and simulation market didn't help either.
The developer is currently in liquidation, and all of its assets, which mostly include its Urban PAD technology, are for sale. Gamr7 notes that there are a few candidates that are considering hiring its team to continue development on the middleware, but nothing is final so far.
As for Urban Pad's licensees, Gamr7's co-founder and business development manager Bernard Legaut reached a temporary deal with administrators to continue managing existing licenses until the liquidation process is over.
"This has been hard times, but I am still convinced that procedural technology is the future," says Legaut. "And as a leopard can't change its spots, I am already thinking about other projects and looking for opportunities."
