Midsummer Studios Shuts Down, Cancels Burbank After Jake Solomon Shares Footage

Jake Solomon, co‑founder and creative director who led the 2012 XCOM reboot, posted a farewell message and pre‑alpha footage of Burbank on X as he announced Midsummer Studios will close its doors and cancel the project the team had been building. Solomon wrote, "We built a studio, we made a game, and I’m really proud of both," and shared the trailer as a final glimpse of the next‑generation life sim.

Burbank was presented by Solomon as a player‑driven life sim pitched as "like 'Life Sims + The Truman Show,' but it's more than that." He called the game a place "where characters come alive" and said, "I believe people are storytellers, and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they can dream up. Burbank lets you do that." The footage has been described in reporting as pre‑alpha or "pre‑pre alpha," and Solomon framed it as a look at work the small team had poured their hearts into.

Solomon also explained the project used "some form of AI" to write and voice characters while stressing the studio's artists created all art. He wrote, "That's what lets you create anyone you want and drop them in any story you write. But all of our art is created by our talented artists. We had no interest in replacing any developers with AI." The exact technical nature of the AI, whether generative models or other machine learning systems, was not specified in his message.

Midsummer Studios launched in May 2024 and ran roughly 21 months before this closure; the studio had secured $6 million in startup funding from Transcend Fund and partners including Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton, and Day Zero Productions. Founders included Solomon and Will Miller, a designer with Civilization pedigree, and the team counted longtime Sims designer Grant Rodiek among its staff. In a 2024 interview the studio reported 11 employees with plans to add two more.

Solomon did not provide a reason for the shutdown, and no verified details about staff departures, severance, or the identity of an alleged former The Sims Project Rene director who reportedly co‑developed Burbank have been confirmed. The studio's closing comes amid a wider spell of industry layoffs and shutdowns; another high‑profile closure announced the same day was Sony's decision to close Bluepoint Games.

Midsummer's final public image included the studio logo and the motto "Good People Making Great Games Together" alongside the farewell trailer Solomon posted on X. For now, Burbank's pre‑alpha footage is the only public artifact of the AI‑enabled life sim from the studio that raised $6 million and assembled veterans from Firaxis, Maxis, and Civilization to try to reinvent how emergent characters and player stories might work in a life sim.