Glasgow-headquartered Axis Studios, the animation and VFX company responsible for some of the most successful game cinematics of all time entered administration, with 162 people made redundant.
On July 15 2024, Alistair McAlinden and Geoff Jacobs of Interpath Advisory were appointed administrators, and while all production has ceased, Interpath is looking for operators to continue with live projects.
Alistair McAlinden, head of Interpath Advisory in Scotland and joint administrator, said:
It is a great shame to see a creative business in Scotland close its doors. Axis has been a studio of choice for key production companies and has produced content for household names such as the BBC, Netflix and Blizzard Entertainment. The Company experienced a high demand for its services during COVID as animation and visual effects for TV, film and videogames skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, however, Axis has more recently been impacted by a decline in customer projects, as well as increases in labour costs which have resulted in severe cash flow problems. The directors worked tirelessly to explore alternative solutions, but ultimately had to take the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators.
Alongside its film, television and VFX work, Axis created some of the most iconic and well-loved game cinematics ever. The studio first rose to prominence in the games industry with the now-infamous Dead Island ‘backwards’ trailer, which gave the zombie horror title a unique and heartbreaking viral hit:
Axis also worked with some of the world’s largest titles and franchises, including Halo, Gears Of War, League Of Legends: Wild Rift, Clash of Clans, Diablo II, Magic: The Gathering, Sackboy and Warframe. The studio’s TV and film work included Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, Doctor Who, The Incredible Hulk and Axis’ interpretation of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol – Scrooge.
The company employed 166 workers, four of whom will be retained to assist with knowledge transfer and winding down operations.
Geoff Jacobs, joint administrator, said:
Our priority is to give employees support in the first instance. We would encourage any party with an interest in Axis’ live projects to contact us immediately.”
It’s always desperately sad to lose a creative business in Scotland, especially one which produced such a huge range of incredible (and often award-winning) work. Axis were an unsung hero of Scotland’s games ecosystem, working with many of the biggest publishers around the world.
We’d like to offer the team from Axis any help we can in terms of sharing CVs, or introductions to games companies and studios across the country.