The Chinese Room

The Chinese Room is a developer and publisher.

The Chinese Room Webpage, Facebook

A British development studio based in Brighton, part of Sumo Group since 2018. The Chinese Room creates games for PC, consoles, and mobile devices, and its most famous projects include Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

History

The studio's roots date back to 2007. The first projects of Thechineseroom, as the team was originally called, were mods for Half-Life 2. These included titles such as Antlion Soccer, Dear Esther, and Korsakovia; the team also developed a mod for Doom 3, titled Conscientious Objector.

The rise to fame

Of these, the Dear Esther mod was the most successful, and it was later decided to develop it into a full-fledged production. A standalone version of the exploration game Dear Esther debuted in 2012, achieving both artistic and commercial success, cementing the company's position on the industry map. The team then partnered with Frictional Games, which resulted in the survival horror game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, a sequel to the cult classic Amnesia: The Dark Descent. While this title didn't replicate the success of its predecessor, it allowed the developers to gain momentum.

Successes and the specter of problems

While still working on the second Amnesia, the team began preparing its third full-fledged project. In 2013, the studio changed its name to The Chinese Room and began another collaboration - this time with Sony's Santa Monica Studio - which resulted in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture released in 2015. Despite the project's artistic success, the studio ran into trouble in 2017; unable to pay employees during the transition period between projects, Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry were forced to lay off their entire staff. However, the studio continued to operate, as evidenced by the releases of Dear Esther: Landmark Edition (a remake of the studio's first full-fledged production) and So Let Us Melt (designed for virtual reality headsets).

A new chapter

In August 2018, Sumo Group, Sumo Digital's parent company, announced the acquisition of The Chinese Room for L2.2 million. Dan Pinchbeck took over as the studio's creative director, while Jessica Curry became a freelance composer working with the company. After being acquired by a larger entity, The Chinese Room began to grow again, and in October 2020, it began working on its new game. In June 2023, it was announced that the studio is working on Still Wakes the Deep, an action-adventure horror game. In July, it was announced that one of the studio's founders and creative director, Dan Pinchbeck, would be leaving the company after 15 years of service.

In September, it was revealed that Paradox Interactive had assigned the team the task of completing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The developers decided to introduce a number of changes, primarily affecting the story, the main character, and the game's mechanics. Upon hearing that The Chinese Room would be handling the finalization of the project, fans reacted with cautious optimism. While the developers have established themselves as creators of excellent storytelling, how they would handle an action RPG remained a mystery.