This was announced Friday but I had to put something about it here since I’ve long had a soft spot for Headfirst. As a studio (formerly called Adventuresoft) they seemed to be in eternal publisher hell. After the delightful 2D adventure games Simon the Sorcerer and sequel sold well, the planned pre-rendered sequel proved impossible to sign and was eventually dropped (presumably along with the expensive SGI machines they bought to make it with).

Eventually they released Simon the Sorcerer 3D which was a huge disappointment in pretty much all regards - gameplay, visuals, (lack of) humour and sales. I remember PC Zone reviewing code around 6 months before it was out so goodness knows what the story was there.
They seemed set to bounce back with Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth but it took forever to come out and changed publisher hands a few times. Having played a few hours so far, it’s a quality game that really can scare the pants off you at times so I’ll certainly be finishing that particular swan song. At some point they even licensed Battle of the Planets but who knows what the idea was there.

Given what seemed like endless troubles for Headfirst I’m surprised they continued this long, but it’s still very sad to see them go. How much of it was their fault and that of their publishers hardly seems to matter - Britsoft just lost another stalwart. I also only just found out Amiga legends The Bitmap Brothers closed a few years back too, though given their lack of noteworthy output since Z:Steel Soldiers it’s hardly surprising.