New Blood CEO would rather shut the studio in 20 years than sell
Dave Oshry says the small remote boomer-shooter studio will close on its own terms rather than take outside money or sell, aiming for a happy ending.
Edited by Dot Matrix, Editor-in-Chief
Specimen of the week is not a single build but a finish line: New Blood’s CEO picturing a last tour, a thank-you to players, and then fishing, before the high notes go flat.
New Blood Interactive is a relatively small, remote studio marking its 12-year anniversary. Its growing catalogue includes Dusk, Gloomwood, Amid Evil, Fallen Aces and Ultrakill. CEO Dave Oshry is already talking about how he wants that run to end.1
He would rather close the company than sell it or chase outside cash. “I want us to go out on our terms,” he said.1
Oshry frames the model in plain terms. Keep the team relatively small. Stay remote. Avoid parking everything on one franchise and endless sequels. If that path could not stay successful, he would shut it down rather than scramble for publisher or investor money, content that the studio tried, made some cool games, and stopped.1
The horizon he gives is about two decades. In 20 years, he said, they are done: say goodbye, thank people for playing, call it fun, and go fishing. He will not sell the studio or hand it to anyone else. It will be their time.1
He hopes players remember New Blood the way they remember favorite studios from the 1990s and 2000s, but without the acquisition or collapse endings those often got. A happy ending, on the studio’s clock, is the point.1
What makes the stance stand out is how he draws the line against the wider business. He calls the industry a machine that needs product and labour, and says that is not New Blood. He prefers the picture of a band whose games are albums, with touring and merchandise; with more people involved, he likens it now to an orchestra. Eventually the band ages and tires. He wants the retirement tour and a stop before the sad late show where the crowd notices the high notes are gone.1
Field note: the same conversation stresses that sequel churn is not the house style. The catalogue keeps adding new work without that being the only plan.
Worth knowing: this is a philosophy piece from the CEO of a small indie known for boomer shooters, not a shutdown notice today. No store link or new release date came with the remarks.
Our read: Oshry is treating independence as a design constraint with an exit built in. The 20-year mark is his stated wish, not a locked schedule, and new games will test the model long before any farewell tour. What the quotes fix in place is the refusal: survival through a sale or investor scramble is off the table if it means giving up the way they work.
Footnotes
Like the paper? Buy us a coffee. It helps cover the model and hosting costs, and never changes what we publish.