Samson studio Liquid Swords is bankrupt and closing; the receiver says the game sold about 151,900 copies

Liquid Swords, the Swedish studio that made the action game Samson, is closing. The Stockholm District Court declared the company bankrupt on October 12, 2026, and appointed Karl Björlin of the law firm Cirio as official receiver, according to Cirio’s notice and the estate’s preliminary bidding documents, dated October 15.

Founder Christofer Sundberg wrote on X on October 19: “Liquid Swords is closing. Samson did far better on consoles, but it wasn’t enough to save the studio. I’m proud of our team and what we built.”

What the receiver’s documents show

The bidding documents include sales figures. They say Samson “has sold a total of approximately 151,900 copies across Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Steam, generating aggregate net revenue of approximately SEK 24.1 million, as of 14 October 2026.” The documents note that their contents are based on information from company representatives and official registers, and may be adjusted.

The attached sales report breaks the total down by platform:

• Steam (released April 8, 2026): 83,990 copies, about SEK 12.2 million. The report says this is before 18,536 returns.
• PlayStation (released September 21, 2026): 54,380 copies, about SEK 9.5 million.
• Xbox (released September 21, 2026): 13,530 copies, about SEK 2.4 million.

In the period from September 21 to October 14, when the console versions were out, the report counts 82,001 copies across all three platforms for about SEK 13.2 million, and says PlayStation accounted for 72% of net revenue in that window.

The documents also say the company “had no recorded net turnover in the financial year 2024, as the Company was in the development phase of its first game,” and that its result after financial items that year was about SEK −39.3 million.

Staff and the sale

According to the documents, “the Company has 27 employees, who will be dismissed from their positions as part of the bankruptcy.” Employment contracts do not transfer with the business; a buyer who wants to take on staff would have to sign new contracts with each person.

The estate is inviting bids for the business as a whole or for parts of it, including the rights to Samson, the “Liquid Swords” trademark and other trademarks, domain names, source code and development material, and office equipment. The documents say some Samson assets are subject to security held by NetEase, so a buyer would need to deal with NetEase as pledgee. The Unreal Engine license used to make Samson is not part of the sale.

Indicative bids are due “no later than 21 October 2026, at 12:00 CEST,” which is 07:00 ART on Wednesday, October 21 by our conversion. The estate says it may evaluate bids as they arrive and complete a sale before the deadline.

On October 20, the receiver posted a second version of the bidding documents that adds an equipment inventory as an appendix and revises the trademark list, which now shows “SAMSON” and “Tyndalston” as EU registered; the deadline, sales figures and staff count are unchanged.

What happens to Samson

During the bidding period, the estate says it “will … seek to maintain continuity of the Company’s operations relating to Samson, including ongoing support, patches and commercial activity (subject to ongoing review).” Sundberg wrote on X that the studio is “discussing continued support for Samson.”

In a longer statement on LinkedIn, as quoted by Vertical Slice, Sundberg wrote that “the console versions met with much greater success than the PC release,” and that “market conditions and some bad business decisions brought us here, and I own my part in that.” He also said he plans to share more about a new studio.

Sundberg told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he is in talks with NetEase about licensing the Samson IP and continuing to build on it at a smaller scale, and Aftonbladet reported that eight staff will continue in a new team. “Vi satsade, misslyckades och där är vi,” he told the paper (“We bet, we failed, and here we are,” our translation). The receiver’s documents do not mention a licensing deal, and the estate is still taking bids.

Liquid Swords was founded in 2020 and is based in Nacka, near Stockholm. Vertical Slice describes Sundberg as a co-founder of Avalanche Studios and creative director on Just Cause.