XCOM Director Jake Solomon Shuts Studio, Cancels AI Game

Jake Solomon, a longtime developer known for his work on XCOM 2 and Marvel’s Midnight Suns, has announced that his new studio, Midsummer Studios, is closing. He also shared early footage of the studio’s cancelled game, titled Burbank.

Solomon worked at Firaxis for 23 years. During that time, he served as creative director on XCOM 2 and later on Marvel’s Midnight Suns. He left the company in early 2023. In May 2024, it was announced that he and fellow Firaxis veteran Will Miller had founded Midsummer Studios. The team was developing a new game in the life simulation genre.

Now, Solomon has confirmed that the studio will shut down. Before closing, he released a video showing an early version of Burbank to explain what the team had been building.

Burbank was designed as a storytelling life sim game. Players would create stories for a group of characters by entering prompts. The game would then use generative AI to build story events based on those prompts. The video showed a very early version of the system and how the AI-generated storytelling worked.

“We built a studio, we made a game, and I’m really proud of both,” Solomon wrote. “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 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.”

Solomon also addressed concerns about the use of AI in the project. He explained how the system worked.

“Our characters use AI for memory, reasoning and speech. 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.”

However, some people responded by saying that writers and voice actors are also important parts of game development. They suggested that the early footage of Burbank appeared to replace those roles with AI systems.

In an earlier interview in May 2024, Solomon had described his new project as a different type of life simulation game. It focused more on story and character relationships than traditional life sims.

“We’re definitely a life sim, but we’re more focused on story, on the relationships in your world,” he said at the time. “You can’t play this game without writing a story. I view it at least as much as a toy as it is a game. I view it like narrative Minecraft.”

With the closure of Midsummer Studios, Burbank will not be released. The early footage remains the only public look at what the team had planned for its AI-driven storytelling game.