Douze Dixièmes Closes Five Months After MIO: Memories in Orbit

Douze Dixièmes, the 10-person French studio behind the metroidvania MIO: Memories in Orbit, is closing its doors five months after the day-one Game Pass launch. The shutdown was first reported by French newspaper Le Figaro, in the original report on French game industry closures, and multiple outlets have since confirmed the news, though neither the studio nor its former publisher has publicly announced the closure. Douze Dixièmes had been a subsidiary of Focus Entertainment, owned by PulluP Entertainment, since 2021. The co-founders bought back their shares from Focus before initiating the wind-down, allowing them to lay off the team on their own terms.

The Studio Behind MIO Is Closing Its Doors

The original report was written by French journalist Chloé Woitier and ran in Le Figaro on June 23, 2026, as part of a broader feature on the state of the French video game industry. The closure was quickly confirmed in English by industry commentators online, with one writing that it was “the end of the road” for the studio behind MIO. English-language coverage followed within hours.

The Le Figaro report ran under a “red alert” framing for the French video game industry, situating the MIO developer inside a wave of cascading studio closures and layoffs. Woitier’s piece positioned Douze Dixièmes as one entry in a longer list of studios under pressure in France. The article’s lead quote, attributed to the Le Figaro reporter, set the tone: “It’s a red alert for the French video game industry amid a wave of studio closures and layoffs.” That framing placed the MIO developer’s exit in the context of a wider pattern of contraction in the French industry.

A Game Critics Loved, Players Did Not Show Up

MIO: Memories in Orbit launched in January 2026 as a day-one Xbox Game Pass title, a placement that should have cushioned any commercial wobble. Critics welcomed the 2.5D metroidvania, praising its visuals and atmosphere aboard a derelict colony ship. The player numbers that followed, however, did not match the critical welcome.

TrueAchievements, the Xbox-focused stats tracker, counted just over 10,500 players registered as having played MIO through Game Pass as of this week. That total placed the game as the 30th-biggest day-one Game Pass debut of 2026 so far, a thin showing for a flagship French metroidvania on Microsoft’s subscription service. By comparison, the chart’s top day-one Game Pass launches of the year pulled tens of thousands of players in their first weeks. The numbers paint a picture of a game that landed softly and never built momentum.

• About 10,500 players on Game Pass (per TrueAchievements, June 2026)
• 30th-biggest day-one Game Pass debut of 2026 so far
• About 10 employees at the studio at the time of closure
• 5 months from MIO’s January 2026 launch to the June 2026 closure

Critic reviews were warm; the commercial numbers were not. The disconnect between review scores and player counts is, by the data shown, what sank the math.

The studio had around ten employees, per French industry figures cited in the reporting. MIO was its second and final published game, after the 2020 puzzle-platformer Shady Part of Me. Both titles are now set to remain under Focus Entertainment’s publishing umbrella, per PulluP’s own statement. The library survives; the team that built it does not.

For the MIO team, the closure lands in a year defined by similar endings across the industry. Game Pass exposure, critical praise, and a small team’s best work were not enough to offset the commercial reality. The result is a great game, a thin player base, and no second chance.

From Seven Friends In Paris To Focus Subsidiary

Douze Dixièmes was founded in 2017 near Paris by seven friends from a range of professional backgrounds, including animation, architecture, and engineering. Their debut, the puzzle-platformer Shady Part of Me, arrived in 2020 and drew attention for its watercolor visuals and wordless storytelling.

In October 2021, Focus Home Interactive acquired the studio outright, per the original 2021 acquisition announcement. The studio’s co-founder and chairman, George Herrmann, said at the time that the deal would let Douze Dixièmes “achieve our vision” within a larger group. Focus’s then-president, Christophe Nobileau, framed the move in bigger terms.

This acquisition once again demonstrates our ambition to create a strong Group, but also illustrates Focus’s desire to support the French video game scene, a major focus of our editorial strategy.

Christophe Nobileau, president of Focus Home Interactive at the time of the October 2021 deal, has not commented on the 2026 closure. Five years on, the MIO developer is gone, the relationship severed, and the studio wound down by its own founders. The arc from partnership to closure tracks a common pattern in the modern games business: a small team gets absorbed by a publisher, ships one or two games, and quietly disappears. The 2021 announcement is still online; the studio it claimed to support is not.

The Buyback That Set The Stage

Before the closure, the co-founders of Douze Dixièmes bought back the studio’s shares from Focus Entertainment, regaining full control of the company. French journalist Gauthier Andres framed the share buyback as a precondition for an orderly wind-down. One industry commentator was blunter about what the buyback was actually for.

Recently dropped by Focus, the co-founders had bought back all the shares, but it appears this was mainly so they could lay themselves off on their own terms rather than those of the publisher.

Gautoz, a French YouTuber and industry commentator active on the Origami Discord server, posted that quote in the early hours of the shutdown news and later confirmed to readers that the closure was real. His post was one of the first English-language confirmations of the Le Figaro report. PulluP Entertainment, Focus’s parent, put out a brief, bloodless statement on the separation: “PULLUP Entertainment is announcing that it has sold its entire stake in Douze Dixièmes to the studio’s founding partners.” The decision was described as mutual, taken to let each entity “pursue its strategic objectives independently.”

Red Alert In The French Industry

The Douze Dixièmes closure sits inside a wider contraction in the French video game industry. The Le Figaro report’s lead quote, attributed to the paper’s own reporter at Game Camp 2026, read: “There’s going to be major upheaval. It’s a red alert for the French video game industry amid a wave of studio closures and layoffs.” That framing set the tone for a piece that treated the MIO developer as one entry in a much longer list.

PulluP Entertainment’s own financials, released earlier in 2026, underline the publisher’s tight position. The parent group reported a nearly 28% drop in revenue in its last fiscal year, blaming the absence of major releases despite the respectable launch of Absolum. The financial report was the document in which PulluP first acknowledged selling its stake in Douze Dixièmes. With a small studio unable to clear its commercial bar, the publisher cut the studio loose. The closure arrives as the country hosts Game Camp 2026, the industry’s annual gathering, with smaller studios especially under pressure.

Upstream of Douze Dixièmes, the studio was small enough to be treated as a line item in a corporate filing. The ten employees who worked on MIO are now looking for work in a market shedding roles at every level, from the largest publishers down to indie teams. The closure lands in the same week that layoffs were reported at Virtuos, the studio behind Oblivion Remastered. It is one entry in the wider wave of 2022-2026 video game industry layoffs that has reshaped studios of every size.

What Survives The Studio

Two games outlive the studio. PulluP’s statement confirmed that both Shady Part of Me and MIO: Memories in Orbit will continue to be published by Focus Entertainment Publishing.

For players, the practical reality is simple: the games stay available, the servers stay up, and Focus keeps the back catalog. The seven friends in Paris who started the studio in 2017 are no longer operating under that name in any form. The ten employees who lost their jobs in the wind-down are now looking for work in a market shedding roles at every level. The story of the MIO developer’s exit has been pieced together by reporters, industry commentators, and the Origami journalist who first reported the share buyback.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Douze Dixièmes shut down?

The studio began winding down in June 2026, roughly five months after MIO: Memories in Orbit launched in January 2026. The closure was first reported by Le Figaro on June 23, 2026.

Why is Douze Dixièmes closing?

Commercial underperformance of MIO: Memories in Orbit ended the relationship with publisher Focus Entertainment. The co-founders then bought back their shares and shut the studio on their own terms, a structure that let the team of about ten people handle the layoffs themselves.

What happens to MIO: Memories in Orbit?

The game stays published by Focus Entertainment Publishing, a PulluP Entertainment subsidiary. The catalog survives the studio that made it; the studio itself does not.

How many people worked at Douze Dixièmes?

Around ten people, per French industry figures cited in coverage of the closure. Both Shady Part of Me (2020) and MIO: Memories in Orbit (2026) were built by that small team.

Was MIO: Memories in Orbit on Xbox Game Pass?

Yes. MIO: Memories in Orbit launched in January 2026 as a day-one Xbox Game Pass title, which usually means broad exposure for a small studio. The title drew just over 10,500 players through Game Pass by late June 2026, per TrueAchievements data, ranking it as the 30th-biggest day-one Game Pass debut of 2026.