XCOM creator Jake Solomon's Midsummer Studios shuts down

Firaxis veteran Jake Solomon has announced that Midsummer Studios is closing, less than two years after the studio was founded, with the developer sharing footage of its now-cancelled AI-powered game Burbank.

The details:

• Solomon, who spent over two decades at Firaxis as creative director on titles including XCOM 2 and Marvel's Midnight Suns, left the studio in early 2023. The following year, he announced that he had co-founded Midsummer Studios with fellow Firaxis veteran Will Miller in May 2024 to work on a narrative-focused life simulation game that used generative AI in its gameplay.
• The unreleased debut title, Burbank, was described as "Life Sims + The Truman Show" and would have allowed players to create stories for characters by generating them by prompting AI. Solomon has now shared footage of the game alongside the closure announcement, giving the public a look at an early build and the generative AI system in use.

• Solomon also addressed criticism leveled at the studio for its use of generative AI, clarifying that the characters use the technology for “memory, reasoning, and speech," which would allow players to create any character and story they wanted. He added that all of its artwork was created by humans, but others highlighted that using AI to create stories could be seen as a move to replace game writers.