We are very sad to report that Storyscape, the groundbreaking narrative game developed by Fogbank Entertainment shut down permanently on Monday as a result of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox and subsequent reorganizing. Fogbank was a subsidiary of FoxNext Games but was not part of that division’s sale by Disney to interactive entertainment and mobile game company Scopely.
In the beautifully illustrated Storyscape, every choice you made transformed your story. And the stories spanned genres, from well-known properties like the “X-Files” and “Titanic” to entirely new creations like the dark fantasy “Eternal City” and rom-com “Life 2.0.” The game has only been available worldwide since late October.
The Catchword team was delighted to name the platform as well as the new story titles and was working with Fogbank on several more. For a fantasy and sci-fi geek like me, the Storyscape series was a dream project, and I loved playing the games.
Of course, we at Catchword aren’t the only disappointed fans. The Gamer and other industry mags reported the outcry: “Many have lamented the loss of such an innovative game that celebrates and features prominent and positive LGBTQ+, racial and gender diversity representation.”
With more than 1.7 million installs of the game, and more titles and seasons in development, we hope that there will be another life for Storyscape. Several fans even started a petition to keep the game going, which has now been edited to show appreciation to the game development team.
It’s likely that these titles are gone for good. The impact of Storyscape on narrative gaming, however, is indelible. This bar can’t be unraised.
We look forward to seeing where narrative gaming goes from here and wish all the best to the Fogbank team.
