A San Francisco mobile studio, built over four years on a casino company's ambition to step beyond gambling, has gone dark, and roughly 440 people learned of it in a single moment. The people who made its games now tell two stories about why: one of a parent that stopped paying, the other of play that never quite found its players. Both are true enough to feel, and neither is fully proven, which is how most endings look while they are still happening.
Fortis Games Shuts Down, Putting Roughly 440 Jobs at Risk After Parent Company Pulls Funding
Roughly 440 employees lost their jobs abruptly, according to former staff who spoke publicly on LinkedIn.
Today, we finally ran out of runway.
Mark
Four hundred and forty jobs gone. How did it unfold?
Mimi
Fast. Twilight Towers was sunset on November 4, and about a week later the whole studio was shut and contracts were terminated worldwide.
Mark
Who decided that?
Mimi
According to producer Gustavo Coronet, Las Vegas Sands, the parent company, chose to end funding and part ways.
Luke
Worth noting that's one former employee's account on LinkedIn. The source doesn't include a statement from Las Vegas Sands explaining its reasoning.
Mark
And the company's own statement?
Mimi
It's gracious but thin. It thanks people and says the focus is helping them find new opportunities, but it doesn't say why.
Luke
The 440 figure is also described as 'around' and 'more than 400.' Nobody has given a breakdown by studio or country.
Mark
Do the former staff agree on what went wrong?
Mimi
Not entirely. Coronet points to strong early soft launch metrics. Butterworth says the community-focused approach never got off the ground.
Luke
Those can't both be fully right, and we can't verify either. 'Solid metrics' is his characterization, with no numbers attached.
Mark
What's the human side?
Mimi
Butterworth was mid-move to Los Angeles when it happened. That detail says a lot about how abrupt it was.
Le Pouls
- Roughly 440 people lost their jobs in a single announcement, with the news reaching many of them first through their own posts on LinkedIn.
- Twilight Towers was sunset on November 4, and within a week the whole company, including Bloom & Breakfast, was gone.
- Former staff disagree on the cause: one points to a parent company that ended funding, the other to a community strategy that failed to take hold.
- The company's only official move is a brief promise to help its team find new work, while the parent's reasoning remains unexplained.
- Displaced developers are now searching for their next roles, and observers are waiting to see whether Las Vegas Sands tries gaming again.
A San Francisco mobile studio, built over four years on a casino company's ambition to step beyond gambling, has gone dark, and roughly 440 people learned of it in a single moment. The people who made its games now tell two stories about why: one of a parent that stopped paying, the other of play that never quite found its players. Both are true enough to feel, and neither is fully proven, which is how most endings look while they are still happening.
Fortis Games, the San Francisco mobile studio behind Twilight Towers and Bloom & Breakfast, has closed, and about 440 people found out at once. Most of what they know came from their own posts on LinkedIn, alongside a short company statement thanking its team and promising help finding new roles.
Former staff offered sharper accounts. Game producer Gustavo Coronet said parent company Las Vegas Sands ended funding and terminated contracts worldwide, and he pointed to solid soft launch numbers for both projects still in early development. Former communications director Scott Butterworth saw it differently, arguing that Fortis's community-focused approach never connected with players enough to survive. He described the closure as abrupt, and noted with some irony that he was in the middle of moving to Los Angeles.
Founded in 2022 by former Electronic Arts and Zynga executive Steven Chiang, Fortis was Las Vegas Sands' route into gaming beyond casinos. It acquired several studios along the way, which explains how such a young company grew to hundreds of staff.
The collapse was swift. Twilight Towers was sunset on November 4, and a week later the company was closed. What comes next is where these developers land, and whether the casino giant tries again.
Fortis Games, the San Francisco mobile studio behind Twilight Towers and Bloom & Breakfast, has closed, and the people who worked there found out all at once. Roughly 440 jobs are affected. The news came out largely through posts from former employees on LinkedIn, alongside a short statement from the company.
The statement was brief. The company said it had been fortunate to work with talented and dedicated people, that its main focus now would be helping that team find new opportunities, and that it was grateful for the collaboration and friendship of the past five years.
The former staff were more specific about what happened. Game producer Gustavo Coronet wrote that Las Vegas Sands Corp., Fortis's parent company, chose to end funding and part ways, terminating all contracts worldwide. He said he was proud of the work and that the decision does not erase the agentic development workflow built by the Octopus team. He also pointed to what he called solid soft launch metrics for both of the studio's projects, which were still at an early stage of development.
Scott Butterworth, the former communications director, offered a different reading. He suggested that Fortis's community-focused approach to mobile games had not resonated enough with players to get the company off the ground, and that it finally ran out of runway. He described the closure as abrupt, putting more than 400 people out of work, himself included. He added that he happened to be in the middle of relocating to Los Angeles, which he called a hilarious piece of timing.
The two accounts do not quite agree. Coronet emphasizes early performance and a parent company's decision to stop paying. Butterworth emphasizes a strategy that never found its audience. Both come from former employees, and the source does not include a detailed explanation from Las Vegas Sands itself.
Fortis was founded in 2022 by Steven Chiang, a former executive at Electronic Arts and Zynga. Las Vegas Sands funded it as a way for the casino company to expand beyond gambling. Over the following four years, Fortis acquired several game studios, which helps explain how a company of that age reached a headcount in the hundreds.
The end came quickly. On November 4, Fortis announced it was sunsetting Twilight Towers. Only a week later, the whole company was closed.
What to watch next is where the displaced developers land, since the company's own stated priority is helping them find new roles, and whether Las Vegas Sands pursues any further push into gaming after this one.
Citations marquantes
Las Vegas Sands chose to end funding and part ways, terminating all of the contracts, worldwide.— Gustavo Coronet, former game producer, on LinkedIn
Despite our unique, community-focused approach to the mobile games market, we just couldn't seem to get off the ground.— Scott Butterworth, former communications director, on LinkedIn
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