Simulation publisher Astragon Entertainment is shutting its internal studio. Astragon Development, the German team formerly known as Independent Arts Software, is closing as part of a strategic realignment, GamesIndustry.biz reports via GamesMarket, with more than 40 employees affected.
Independent Arts was founded in Hamm in 1990 by Holger Kuchling and spent three decades on more than 250 games, mostly ports and co-development for publishers such as Kalypso, Daedalic and Wild River Games. Astragon bought the studio in April 2023 for up to €3.5 million ($3.9 million), hoping to pull more of its working-sim lineup in-house. Kuchling left in February 2025, and the studio was renamed Astragon Development three months later.
Astragon itself sits under Everplay Group, the company formerly called Team17, which acquired the publisher in 2022. The closure follows other belt-tightening: in January Astragon exited physical distribution entirely to focus on digital publishing.
The timing also trails the full 1.0 launch of Seafarer: The Ship Sim at the end of September. That project drew more than €1.8 million in German federal funding, but GamesMarket reported a softer launch than its early access debut and “Mixed” user reviews. Astragon says it will keep updating Seafarer for now.
The company said it is looking for “socially responsible solutions” for the staff caught in the shutdown, without detailing severance or placement plans in the English-language writeups.
It is another rough data point in a year already thick with studio cuts, from VR houses like Schell Games’ second layoff round of 2026 to larger first-party resets. For Astragon, bringing Independent Arts inside the tent lasted a little over three years before the publisher decided it no longer needed that in-house bench of port and sim talent on payroll. What remains is the Astragon publishing label, a live but soft-performing ship sim, and more than 40 people looking for the next gig in a German industry that has already taken several hits this year.
