Futurlab Quietly Cancels IKARO Will Not Die Amid Thunderful’s Financial Struggles

Without any prior announcements or official statements, James Naughton, an environment artist from Futurlab—the studio behind PowerWash Simulator—has revealed that the action-roguelike platformer IKARO Will Not Die has been canceled. He also shared some of his work on the game via ArtStation.

The development of the game was first made public on July 29, 2021, when the Swedish holding company Thunderful announced a deal with Futurlab to publish a fast-paced, dynamic successor to the Velocity series, also developed by Futurlab.

IKARO Will Not Die was officially unveiled on October 25, 2023, during an Xbox partner showcase. Despite being a new title from the creators of the popular PowerWash Simulator, its first gameplay trailer only garnered 28,000 views. Additionally, the game received very few wishlists on Steam, largely because it wasn’t showcased again after the initial reveal.

According to SteamDB, the IKARO Will Not Die store page was removed on June 24 of this year, though it can still be accessed via the website. Thunderful faced a series of challenges in 2023: the holding company lost around $60 million, sold the indie publisher Headup for just $500,000—a fraction of its original purchase price—parted ways with the Bergsala division, the exclusive distributor of Nintendo products in Scandinavia, and closed several internal studios. These moves were part of a shift to focus solely on game development and publishing. However, despite the restructuring, Thunderful’s revenues have continued to decline, as reported in their financial statement for Q2 2024 (April 1 – June 30).

It remains unclear who is ultimately responsible for the cancellation of IKARO Will Not Die. After three years of development, Futurlab had only managed to create the core gameplay mechanics and two procedurally generated locations. Given Thunderful's significant financial struggles, it’s likely the holding company decided to cancel one of its upcoming titles. Another possible factor could be Miniclip, which acquired Futurlab in April this year. While Miniclip promised no major changes after the acquisition, some internal shifts might have occurred.

James Naughton expressed his disappointment at the game's cancellation but noted that working on it provided him with valuable creative freedom and new skills that he plans to apply in future projects.

Shortly after the quiet cancellation of IKARO Will Not Die, Thunderful announced two new roguelike games: Lost in Random: The Eternal Die and Reignbreaker. While the first seems to offer something unique and original, the second appears to be a typical Hades clone with a comic book aesthetic. Development of Reignbreaker began in 2022, and by February 2023, Thunderful had acquired its developers from Fizbin Studio, recognizing their potential.

It’s important not to judge a game solely based on visual similarities, as gameplay details—often missed in short trailers—can make a big difference. However, it’s disappointing that instead of something genuinely innovative, we might end up with a rehash of what's already out there, potentially twice over.