Firaxis veterans announce new studio Midsummer Studio to ‘reinvent the Life Sim genre’

videogameschronicle.com:

Firaxis veterans Jake Solomon and Will Miller have formed Midsummer Studios.

The studio, which will be based out of Maryland, are working on a game in the life sim genre, which Midsummer Studios says will attempt to “revitalize” the genre.

“The best stories in games are written by the players,” said Jake Solomon, who was creative director of the modern XCOM games.

“At Midsummer we’re making a life sim focused on the drama of modern life, where our players will write meaningful stories just by playing, and then share those stories with the world.”

Jake Solomon spent 23 years at Firaxis before leaving in early 2023. His final project was Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

While Midnight Suns was well-received critically, all versions were heavily discounted within a month of release, suggesting that its publisher had been disappointed with its commercial performance.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg following the release that “it’s possible the release window wasn’t perfect,” but that he believed Midnight Suns could sell well in the long-term, like other titles from Firaxis Games.

At the time, a 2K spokesperson told VGC it was on “good terms” with Solomon and was looking forward to seeing what he does next.

Midsummer has launched with $6 million raised from major investors. Transcend Fund led the round, joined by Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton, and Day Zero Productions.

Ahead of the studio’s announcement, Solomon spoke to VGC and revealed he isn’t leaving Firaxis behind entirely.

“My new studio, we’re all in-office. We have a floor of the old Firaxis office, and the first person we hired was Ryan Meier, Sid’s son.

“Firaxis is probably like ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ I’ve hired a lot of Firaxis people too. It doesn’t feel like the old times are gone entirely.”