XCOM designer Jake Solomon announces surprise closure of his studio alongside a first look at its canceled life sim, 'the game we poured our hearts into'

Character in canceled game Burbank with pink-blonde hair looking morose. — (Image credit: Midsummer Studios)

Midsummer Studios founder and former Firaxis creative director, Jake Solomon, has announced the abrupt closure of Midsummer through a post on X. Solomon also shared a two-minute gameplay video of its life sim, "Burbank," the first public showcase of the planned Sims competitor. We have reached out to Solomon for comment, and will update this story when we hear back.

"We built a studio, we made a game, and I'm really proud of both," wrote Solomon. "Before we close the doors at Midsummer Studios I'd like to share a glimpse of Burbank, the game we poured our hearts into. It's like 'Life Sims + The Truman Show,' but it's more than that. I believe people are storytellers, and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they can dream up. Burbank lets you do that.

We built a studio, we made a game, and I'm really proud of both. Before we close the doors at Midsummer Studios I'd like to share a glimpse of Burbank, the game we poured our hearts into.It's like "Life Sims + The Truman Show," but it's more than that. I believe people are… pic.twitter.com/RuYvDhdEZOFebruary 19, 2026

"We have moments playing this game where characters come alive in a way we've never experienced. And for an old game developer like me that's special. What you're about to see is definitely pre-alpha. But this game was a dream of mine, our team made it come true, so watch and dream with us."

Previously, Solomon had a storied, 23-year career with Firaxis, first working on Civilization before leading design on the rebooted XCOM series. Solomon's final game with Firaxis was Marvel's Midnight Suns in 2022, a game we loved to the tune of an 88% review and GOTY Runner-up award, but Midnight Suns still underperformed sales-wise.

In a 2024 interview with PCG lead SEO editor Lauren Morton, Solomon explained his pivot from turn-based strategy to life sim, and described how the then-unnamed Burbank would be designed to support player-driven narratives, a more guided experience than other, pure sandbox life sims. Elsewhere, Solomon outlined an NPC generation system that sounded intriguingly similar to the freak favorite everything sim, Dwarf Fortress.

There was little public indication anything was wrong at Midsummer. Most of the studio's official social media accounts have been quiet since its founding was announced in 2024. Midsummer's LinkedIn shared posts celebrating its listing on the Nasdaq and securing a "Game Changer" title from GamesBeat in December. Solomon's most recent X activity prior to the announcement was celebrating the 10-year anniversary of XCOM 2 on February 6.

Midsummer's May 14, 2024 press release disclosed that it had $6 million in funding from a number of venture capital partners, as well as Korean publisher Krafton.

At a glance, funding seems like a safe bet for why Midsummer had to close its doors: Technical.ly reported that Midsummer was pursuing new funding rounds as recently as November 2025, with an SEC filing showing it secured $600,000 in new investment, which strikes me as "walking around money" in terms of trying to make a game.

As for gameplay, Burbank looks fairly polished in its first and only gameplay trailer, though there are notable work-in-progress elements like placeholder text-to-speech voices. Even in the finished game, though, Burbank still would have used generative AI for character voices.

"Our characters use AI for memory, reasoning and speech," Solomon clarified in a follow-up comment on X. "That's what lets you create anyone you want and drop them in any story you write. But all of our art is created by our talented artists. We had no interest in replacing *any* developers with AI."

Generative AI speech is still generative AI, and videogame voice actors have had plenty to say on the matter. To be fair to Midsummer, though, I'm not sure if it would even be possible to fully voice emergent narratives like the ones promised by Burbank with traditional vocal performances. But that's an entirely academic debate now that Midsummer will be unable to bring Burbank across the finish line.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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