Closure of Midsummer Studios: What Happened to Jake Solomon’s Burbank Life Sim

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Midsummer Studios closure timeline and key dates

2023: After a 23-year career at Firaxis Games, Jake Solomon (designer of XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns) left the company in 2023 to start a new venture. He began planning a studio focused on “reinventing” the life simulation genre.
May 14, 2024: Solomon officially announced the launch of Midsummer Studios, co-founded with fellow Firaxis veteran Will Miller and COO Nelsie Birch. The studio’s press release revealed $6 million in seed funding led by Transcend Fund and including investor Krafton. Midsummer Studios was headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland (in the Baltimore area).
Late 2025: Midsummer stayed relatively quiet publicly through 2025. In December 2025, the studio was recognized as a “Game Changer” startup by GamesBeat and even appeared in a Nasdaq showcase. However, behind the scenes the team was seeking additional funding. By November 2025, Midsummer was pursuing new investment; an SEC filing showed a small $600,000 round, hinting that finances were tight.
February 19, 2026: Jake Solomon announced the abrupt closure of Midsummer Studios via a post on X (Twitter). In the same announcement, he shared a two-minute pre-alpha gameplay video of Burbank, the life-simulation game the team had been developing. This date effectively marked the end of Midsummer Studios and the cancellation of Burbank.

These key dates chart the studio’s short two-year lifespan from its hopeful founding in mid-2024 to its sudden closure in early 2026.

Jake Solomon Announces Midsummer Studios is Shutting Down

On February 19, 2026, Jake Solomon, the former creative director of the XCOM series, announced via social media that Midsummer Studios is closing. In a bittersweet farewell, Solomon shared a trailer for Burbank, the unreleased life-simulation game the team had been developing. He expressed pride in the studio and the project, though no specific reason for the shutdown was provided in the initial announcement.

When Did Midsummer Studios Close?

The public announcement of the closure occurred on February 19, 2026. The studio’s social media had remained relatively quiet prior to this, and there was no formal winding-down period. Midsummer Studios officially shuttered approximately two years after its founding in mid-2024, without having released a single game. This closure was noted by industry observers as part of a broader wave of studio shutdowns during early 2026.

Why Did Midsummer Studios Shut Down?

While an official reason was not disclosed, evidence points to financial instability. Developing a 3D life-sim is costly, and the studio appears to have run out of capital.

Funding Shortfall: After raising $6 million in 2024, the studio struggled to secure a significant follow-up. In November 2025, they reportedly raised only $600,000, an amount insufficient for large-scale game development.
Economic Climate: The studio likely failed to secure a major publishing deal or additional venture capital in a challenging economic environment for startups.
AI Speculation: Though the game used generative AI for dialogue and voice, there is no direct evidence that technical hurdles or controversies related to AI caused the closure.

yelzkizi Closure of Midsummer Studios: What Happened to Jake Solomon’s Burbank Life Sim

Who Founded Midsummer Studios?

The studio was founded by a team of high-profile industry veterans:

Jake Solomon (CEO/Creative Director): Previously the creative lead for XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns at Firaxis Games.
Will Miller (Game Director): A Firaxis veteran who worked on Civilization: Beyond Earth and Midnight Suns.
Nelsie Birch (COO/CFO): An expert in financial and operations management with 25 years of experience.

The core team also included Grant Rodiek, a former director of The Sims franchise, and Ryan Meier, son of legendary designer Sid Meier.

Where is Midsummer Studios Based?

Midsummer Studios was headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, near Baltimore. This location allowed the studio to tap into the local talent pool established by nearby companies like Firaxis Games. Despite the unreleased game being titled Burbank, the studio had no physical presence in Burbank, California; all operations were centralized in Maryland.

Midsummer Studios Funding and Investors

At its launch in 2024, Midsummer Studios secured $6 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Transcend Fund and included several prominent backers:

Krafton: The South Korean publisher of PUBG.
Other Investors: Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, and Day Zero Productions.

Funding and Development Challenges

The initial $6 million seed investment was intended to support Midsummer Studios through its early stages, allowing the team to grow to approximately 11 employees and develop Burbank for over 18 months. Despite being recognized in Nasdaq’s “Game Changer” program in 2025, the studio faced significant hurdles when attempting to secure further capital.

Insufficient Bridge Funding: In late 2025, Midsummer sought a Series A round but only secured a $600,000 bridge investment.
Capital Intensity: The high cost of game development proved terminal when the required larger funding failed to materialize, preventing the project from reaching a revenue-generating release.

Investor Roles: Transcend Fund and Krafton

Transcend Fund: As the lead investor, this gaming-focused VC provided validation for the project. Founding partner Shanti Bergel, a former producer on The Sims, joined the board and expressed a belief that Midsummer could redefine the life-sim category.
Krafton: The publisher of PUBG contributed to the seed round. Their involvement suggested a strategic interest in simulation games or AI technology, leading to speculation about a potential future publishing deal that never came to fruition.

The Burbank Concept: “The Sims meets The Truman Show”

Burbank was the working title for a next-generation life simulation game that prioritized narrative and drama over pure sandbox play.

TV Show Framework: The game was designed to let players act as “storytellers” or directors. Gameplay sessions were framed as episodes of a television show, with story arcs ranging from soap operas to sci-fi epics.
Player-Driven Drama: Players would set up scenarios and characters, and the game’s systems would generate meaningful dramatic storylines based on those inputs.
Shared Narratives: The goal was for players to “write” and share these virtual TV dramas with the world.

Pre-Alpha Gameplay and AI Technology

The two-minute pre-alpha video shared by Jake Solomon provided the only public look at Burbank.

Gameplay Mechanics: The footage showed players customizing shows and writing storylines. It featured “Sims-like” characters in heightened emotional states, such as arguments and passionate interactions.
Visual and Audio State: The build was early, featuring placeholder text-to-speech voices and stilted animations. However, it demonstrated that a functional prototype existed.
Generative AI Integration: The game utilized cutting-edge AI for three core character functions:
- Memory: NPCs could recall past interactions and player choices to maintain consistency over time.
- Reasoning: Characters could make autonomous, unscripted decisions based on the context of a scene.
- Speech: Dialogue was generated by AI in real-time, allowing for unique responses to any player-created scenario that could not be covered by traditional voice acting.

Generative AI as a Core Mechanic

Generative AI was the foundational technology that enabled Burbank’s open-ended storytelling. By imbuing NPCs with dynamic brains, the game allowed players to create any character and place them into any written scenario. Instead of relying on canned responses, characters could improvise their dialogue and reactions based on the player’s unique inputs.

Midsummer Studios’ Use of AI: Art vs. Dialogue and Voice

While Midsummer Studios integrated AI deeply into the character systems of Burbank, they were selective about its application:

Art: No AI was used for art or visual assets. All character models, environments, and animations were hand-crafted by human artists. Jake Solomon explicitly stated that the studio had no interest in replacing developers with AI and wanted to maintain full artistic control over the game’s aesthetic.
Dialogue: Yes, the game utilized generative AI (likely large language model technology) to write NPC dialogue in real time. This allowed characters to produce novel sentences appropriate to any situation the player envisioned.
Voice Acting: Yes, character voices were synthesized via AI. While the pre-alpha footage used rudimentary text-to-speech, the final product was intended to use more natural generative speech synthesis. This was considered a design necessity to provide voices for the infinite variations of AI-generated dialogue.

AI Integration

Burbank leveraged generative AI to give characters “memory, reasoning, and speech.” This approach allowed the NPCs to adapt to the player’s vision rather than sticking to pre-authored scripts. By focusing AI on character “brains” and voices while leaving art to human professionals, Midsummer aimed to empower player creativity without sacrificing visual quality or displacing human artists.

Midsummer Studios used AI for character behavior and speech, but not for art assets or traditional creative roles. They harnessed AI where it made the game more flexible, while still relying on human talent for the crafted parts of the game world. Solomon’s stance was clear that they had “no interest in replacing” any human developers with AI—it was intended to enhance possibilities, not to cut costs.

Will Burbank ever be released after the closure of Midsummer Studios?

The project is effectively canceled, and Burbank will not be released in its current form. Jake Solomon’s announcement indicated that the studio is closing before the game can be finished, and there has been no word from Solomon or investors about development continuing elsewhere.

While it is theoretically possible for another studio to acquire the intellectual property or for the team to reform, the odds are slim. The game was in an early pre-alpha state and deeply tied to the original team’s unique technology. Solomon described the shared footage as a way for fans to “dream with us,” suggesting even he views the project as a dream that will not materialize.

Midsummer Studios Layoffs and the Team’s Future

The closure resulted in the layoff of the entire team, which consisted of approximately 11 employees. These developers, who came from prestigious backgrounds at Firaxis and Maxis, must now find new positions within the industry.

Industry Context: This shutdown is part of a broader crisis of studio closures and layoffs occurring in early 2026.
Team Pedigree: The experienced staff, including co-founders Jake Solomon and Will Miller, as well as Grant Rodiek, are expected to be in high demand due to their work on franchises like XCOM and The Sims.
Portfolio Value: The public release of the Burbank footage serves as a portfolio piece for the displaced staff, showcasing their innovation to potential future employers.

Impact on the Life Sim Genre

The cancellation of Burbank has significant implications for the life simulation market:

Future Influence: Despite its cancellation, Burbank’s vision for AI-driven personalities may eventually inspire other developers or influence the direction of future titles like The Sims 5 (Project Rene).

Innovation Gap: Burbank was a unique experiment in using generative AI for dynamic storytelling. Its loss means the genre may stick to traditional designs for the foreseeable future.

Competitive Landscape: With the previous cancellation of Paradox Interactive’s Life By You and now Burbank, the market remains dominated by The Sims franchise. This leaves Paralives as one of the few remaining independent challengers.

Complexity and Risk: The closure highlights how difficult it is to break into the life sim genre, even for veteran developers. The enormous complexity of these “dollhouse” systems poses a high risk for investors and startups.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

When did Midsummer Studios announce its closure?
Jake Solomon announced that Midsummer Studios was shutting down on February 19, 2026. That was the day he posted on X (Twitter) revealing the studio’s closure and sharing a preview of their game Burbank. Essentially, early 2026 is when the studio closed after nearly two years in operation.
Why did Midsummer Studios close down?
The exact reason wasn’t stated by the studio, but all signs point to financial difficulties. Midsummer had raised $6 million but likely ran out of money before finishing Burbank. They sought more funding in late 2025 and got only a small amount, which suggests they couldn’t secure the needed investment. No specific technical failure or scandal was revealed – it appears the project simply became too costly and the funds dried up, forcing the shutdown.
Who founded Midsummer Studios?
It was co-founded by Jake Solomon (former Firaxis creative director of XCOM fame) and Will Miller (former Firaxis designer/engineer), along with Nelsie Birch as a co-founder handling operations. Jake Solomon was the CEO/Creative Director of the studio. They also had other notable team members like Grant Rodiek (a veteran of The Sims franchise) and Ryan Meier (Sid Meier’s son) in the early team.
What game was Midsummer Studios working on?
The studio was developing a life simulation game code-named “Burbank.” Burbank was intended to be a next-gen life sim with a twist – described as “Life Sims + The Truman Show” by Solomon. It would let players create characters and stories that play out like a TV show, with dramatic storylines emerging from gameplay. Unfortunately, Burbank was never completed or released due to the studio’s closure.
Did Midsummer Studios ever release any games?
No, Midsummer Studios did not release any game before it shut down. The company was founded in 2024 and closed in early 2026 without shipping a title. Burbank was the project in development, and while a lot of work went into it (enough for a pre-alpha demo), it never reached the public as a playable game. The only material released was a short gameplay video shared at the end as a glimpse of what they had created.
How was Burbank different from other life sim games?
Burbank’s big differentiator was its focus on player-driven narrative and AI-powered characters. Unlike a typical life sim that’s a pure sandbox, Burbank was designed so that your gameplay would create an ongoing story, almost like episodes of a TV show. It used generative AI for characters’ memory, reasoning, and speech, meaning NPCs could remember past events, make dynamic decisions, and speak unique dialogue on the fly. This would allow for unscripted, emergent storylines in genres ranging from slice-of-life drama to sci-fi, depending on what the player set up. In short, it aimed to be more narrative and dynamic than the open-ended life sims we’re used to.
How many employees did Midsummer Studios have, and what happened to them?
Midsummer Studios was a small team. They had around 11 employees as of 2024 (with plans to hire a couple more). The team included the founders and veteran devs from Firaxis/Maxis. With the closure, those employees were unfortunately let go (since the studio ceased operations). Essentially, the developers are now seeking other jobs in the industry. There’s no indication of another company absorbing the whole team, so each person is moving on separately to new opportunities. Given their talent, we can expect they’ll find roles at other studios or projects, but as of the shutdown, they’re all effectively laid off.
Who invested in Midsummer Studios?
Midsummer’s seed funding (about $6 million) came from several investors. The round was led by Transcend Fund, a venture capital firm focused on gaming, and notably Krafton (the publisher of PUBG) was one of the investors. Other participants included Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, and Day Zero Productions. These investors put in money based on the promise of Burbank. However, there was no follow-up larger investment before the studio closed. Transcend Fund’s involvement was significant – their founding partner even joined Midsummer’s board and was very bullish on the studio’s vision.
Is there any chance Burbank will be revived or released by someone else?
As of now, no plans have been announced to revive Burbank. The IP likely remains with the defunct company or its investors, but there’s been no talk of another studio picking it up. It’s possible (in theory) that another developer or publisher could acquire the concept or hire Jake Solomon to try again, but nothing of that sort has been mentioned publicly. Historically, when projects are canceled at this stage, they tend to stay unreleased. Solomon sharing the footage felt like a final send-off, not a teaser for a move elsewhere. So, barring an unexpected development, Burbank is not going to be released.
What are PixelHair and The View Keeper, and how do they relate to game development?
PixelHair and The View Keeper are actually unrelated to Midsummer Studios – they are tools created by a developer named Yelzkizi, but they’re relevant to game art and production. PixelHair is a collection of pre-made, realistic 3D hair grooms for Blender and Unreal Engine. It’s essentially a library of hairstyles that game artists can use instead of creating hair from scratch. PixelHair is optimized for Blender (it was originally built with Blender’s particle hair system, and the developer plans to incorporate the newer geometry nodes hair system for even better results) and it exports to Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman format easily. This means you can take a PixelHair hairstyle and apply it to a MetaHuman character in UE5, saving a lot of time while still getting high-quality, realistic hair. The benefit is it works out-of-the-box with hair physics and materials in Unreal, making life easier for developers working on character customization. The View Keeper is another tool by Yelzkizi – it’s a Blender add-on for camera management. It allows artists to save multiple camera views and settings (like a bookmark for camera positions), which is super useful when setting up scenes or doing batch renders from different angles. Essentially, The View Keeper streamlines the process of handling many cameras in Blender, which can benefit anyone making cinematic sequences or comparing shots during development. In summary, PixelHair offers ready-made hair assets (with upcoming improvements via geometry nodes integration) as an alternative to painstakingly crafting hair, and The View Keeper helps manage 3D camera work. Both are examples of community-created tools that game developers and 3D artists can use to speed up content creation and iteration.

Conclusion

The story of Midsummer Studios is a cautionary yet intriguing tale in the game industry. In a short span, Jake Solomon’s new studio set out with a bold vision to revolutionize the life sim genre, secured notable funding, assembled a dream team of veteran developers, and developed a groundbreaking concept in Burbank. The game promised to marry the free-form creativity of The Sims with the narrative drive of a TV drama, powered by cutting-edge generative AI technology. It was the kind of ambitious, genre-pushing project that had both players and investors excited about the future of simulation games.

Unfortunately, the closure of Midsummer Studios underscores the harsh realities of game development. Even with experience, funding, and vision, making a new IP – especially something as system-heavy as a life sim – is an expensive and risky endeavor. The abrupt end of Midsummer in early 2026 likely came down to running out of money before the finish line. It’s a reminder that in the current industry climate, many studios (big and small) are facing similar fates, with finances often determining survival as much as creativity does.

For fans of life simulation games, the cancellation of Burbank is undoubtedly a disappointment. It leaves us wondering “what if?”. The preview of Burbank showed us a glimpse of NPCs with true memory and personality, and stories that could unfold in wildly diverse directions. That tease will linger in the community’s mind. Yet, every idea released into the wild can plant seeds for the future. The concepts pioneered by Midsummer – like AI-driven characters – may well inspire other developers to build on that foundation. In fact, we’re already seeing broader interest in AI in games, and Burbank might be remembered as a visionary project that was ahead of its time.

Meanwhile, the genre carries on. Established titles like The Sims will continue to evolve (a new generation of The Sims is on the horizon), and indie projects like Paralives will try to fill the void for a fresh life sim experience. The space for a “next big life sim” is still open, even after Midsummer’s demise. The dream that players could have a life simulation with endless narrative possibilities hasn’t died – it’s just waiting for the next team to pick up the torch.

In conclusion, the closure of Midsummer Studios is a sobering example of how challenging game development can be, but it also highlights the relentless creativity in the industry. Jake Solomon’s team dared to dream big, and even though that dream didn’t fully materialize, it pushed the conversation forward.

As we look to the future of life sim games, we’ll carry lessons learned from Midsummer’s attempt. We saw the potential of blending AI with simulation to create deeper experiences, and we saw the pitfalls of funding and timing. The hope is that future studios can build on the foundation Midsummer laid – perhaps with better timing, more sustainable models, or evolved tech – to finally deliver the kind of living, breathing virtual world that Burbank aspired to create. Until then, we salute the efforts of the Midsummer team and wish its members success in whatever chapters come next, knowing they contributed something valuable to the ever-evolving story of video game development.