Harebrained Schemes will no longer be part of Paradox Interactive as of January next year. The two companies decided this after the poor sales numbers for The Lamplighters League, the latest game from Harebrained Schemes.

Paradox says he wants to focus on him ‘essence Niches within strategy and management games, which would leave no room for Harebrained Schemes. So the developer is separated from the publisher and must now look for a new partner or publisher. Paradox will continue to retain the rights to The Lamplighters League “and other games created by the studio.” Harebrained will also continue to support The Lamplighters League until the end of the year. There is no mention of support beyond January 2024.

The Lamplighters League is a turn-based strategy game set in the year 1932. Players must complete quests with up to eleven characters to find the “Source of All Magic.” The game was announced in March and released on October 3. A week after his release Paradox pointed out that the game’s commercial reception was “very poor”, which he called “a huge disappointment”. “Game projects are always risky, but in the end we didn’t deliver what we were supposed to deliver,” said Frederik Wester, CEO of Paradox.

For The Lamplighters League, Harebrained Schemes made games such as the Shadowrun and BattleTech series. In 2018, Paradox acquired the studio for approximately €6.4 million. Since that acquisition, only The Lamplighters League has been published.