Axis Studios, which previously produced cinematics for Bungie, Blizzard, and Riot, has sadly gone out of business.

Back in 2011, we got to know this Scottish animation and visual effects studio that created the legendary Dead Island video. We first saw it at E3 2011. A slow-motion video that turns back the clock and shows how a family’s innocent vacation ends in a massive zombie horde (no gameplay, of course). According to Gamesindustry, the studio has canceled all current projects and laid off all 162 employees as it begins bankruptcy proceedings.

This video started a trend: huge, cinematic announcement videos with visual effects began to be produced alongside big games, and the style changed to one that paired violent scenes with moody, thought-provoking background music. Axis went on to work on Gears of War, so it was a perfect fit. But what else has the Scottish team been working on? Destiny 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, Warframe, Magic the Gathering, Halo, and even worked on the music video for K/DA’s More. According to their archived website, they’ve also had several visual effects projects for television productions (such as Chernobyl for HBO, Love, Death, & Robots for Netflix).

“Axis has recently been affected by a decrease in client projects and an increase in labor costs. The directors worked tirelessly to explore alternative solutions, but ultimately had to take the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators,” said Alistair McAlinden, one of the joint administrators managing the closure of Axis for Scottish restructuring firm Interpath Advisory, in a statement to Televisual.

So it’s not just the studios that make the games that are affected by the dire state of the industry (hardly a week goes by without news of layoffs).

Source: PCGamer, Gamesindustry, Archive.org, Televisual