Sleeping Dogs studio United Front Games shuts down

Vancouver-based developer United Front Games, best known for its work on Sleeping Dogs, ModNation Racers and Triad Wars, is no more, according to reports from former employees of the studio. News of the studio’s closure comes as United Front’s latest title, Smash + Grab, is in the middle of a free weekend on Steam.

Smash + Grab, a team-based, third-person online multiplayer brawler, was announced in August and released via Steam Early Access in September for $19.99. The game was being sold at a discount and playable for free this past weekend. Smash + Grab has since been pulled for sale from Steam.

United Front Games was formed in 2007 by former employees of Electronic Arts, Radical Entertainment, Black Box Games, Rockstar Games, Propaganda Games and Next Level Games. The studio’s first release was 2010’s ModNation Racers for PlayStation 3, but the studio received notoriety for 2012’s Sleeping Dogs, an open-world crime adventure that originally began as True Crime: Hong Kong at Activision. United Front followed up Sleeping Dogs with a multiplayer-focused spinoff, Triad Wars, which shut down earlier this year.

We’ve reached out to contacts at United Front Games for comment on the closure of the studio and will update with any new information we receive.