Murdered: Soul Suspect

Airtight Games shuts its doors one month after Murdered: Soul Suspect's release

Airtight Games, the maker of games like Dark Void and the recently released Murdered: Soul Suspect, has shut down, according to a report in Geek Wire.

If confirmed, that’s a sad outcome for the Redmond, Wash.-based game studio whose big title, Murdered, was published last month by Square Enix. The title was an impressive new original game in an industry full of sequels, but it fell victim to lackluster reviews (though GamesBeat liked it more than other outlets did).

Airtight worked for years on Murdered, where the player is killed at the beginning and has to solve his own murder. Founded 10 years ago by former Microsoft game creators, Airtight also made Dark Void and Quantum Conundrum. The co-founders included Jim Deal, Matt Brunner, Jared Noftle, Jose Perez, and Ed Fries. The latter was the former head of Microsoft Game Studios, and the team had previously created Crimson Skies for Microsoft.

Geek Wire said Airtight’s offices were closed yesterday. Signs on the door said the company was closing its doors and selling off its office furniture. The company laid off 14 people back in March as part of a restructuring. And its creative director, Kim Swift, left to join Amazon Game Studios.

We have reached out to Airtight’s Jim Deal for more information. A source familiar with the company confirmed the shutdown to GamesBeat.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.