Fortis Games, an ambitious and deep-pocketed game publisher, is on the verge of closing its doors and could cut up to 440 jobs, GamesBeat has learned.
The San Francisco-based gaming company has acquired several studios and expanded over time. It was led by an all-star team including Steven Chiang, CEO and former executive vice president of WB Games Worldwide Studios. He was also a longtime EA Sports executive and also worked at Zynga as a game lead.
The initial money came from Las Vegas Sands, a company founded by Sheldon Adelson (now deceased) and known as the creator of the Venetian Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
On LinkedIn, several Fortis employees said they had been laid off and some announced the company was closing.
In a statement to GamesBeat, Chiang said: “Fortis has been a labor of love for many of us and we are disappointed that we were unable to achieve the goals we set for ourselves when we began this journey over five years ago. We have been fortunate to work with some of the most talented and dedicated people in this field. As we move forward, our main focus will be on helping this talented team find new opportunities. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past five years. We are grateful for this collaboration and the friendship we have shared with so many people.
Pedro Gomes, concept artist at Fortis Games, wrote on LinkedIn: “Today marks the end of my time at Fortis Games, as the company officially closed its doors. Over the past five years, I have had the privilege of collaborating with some truly exceptional people. I am incredibly grateful for everything we have built, learned and created together. Being part of such a talented team has been an incredible experience and I sincerely hope that our paths cross again.”
And Scott Butterworth, communications director, wrote on LinkedIn: “Fortis Games – what could have been. Despite our unique, community-driven approach to the mobile games market, we just couldn’t get off the ground, and today we finally ran out of runway. The company officially closed its doors, abruptly putting over 400 talented people out of work (myself included).”
And Gustavo Coronet, employed in games production at Fortis, wrote on LinkedIn: Today, Fortis Games was abruptly closed.
“Las Vegas Sands has chosen to terminate its financing and separate, thereby terminating all contracts worldwide,” Coronet said. “Very proud of the work we have accomplished. LVS’s decision does not remove the revolutionary, best-in-class agent development workflow that the Octopus team has built, nor the extremely strong soft launch metrics that our project has achieved in these early stages of development.”
Among the companies acquired by Fortis were three development teams: Doppio Games, in Portugal; Oktagon Games in Brazil and Metagame in Romania. The ambition, as recounted by Patrick Dumont, president of Las Vegas Sands in 2022, was to launch into the interactive entertainment medium as a central pillar of diversification beyond gaming. Dumont said the company was building a team to create games from scratch.
Primary leadership for the developer and publisher came from executives at Electronic Arts, WB Games, Zynga, Smule and more.
Fortis initially focused on creating the next generation of video games as a service model, advancing game design and social mechanics to enable digital societies and sustainable group experiences that foster relationships and memories.
The founders believed that online social experiences could be more positive and meaningful, and that games could become the primary form of social entertainment. Chiang was a judge on our Mobile Mogul Awards competition for top mobile gaming executives, and he appeared on a panel about it at our recent GamesBeat Next 2026 event.
Chiang rose through the ranks at EA Sports at EA. He left Electronic Arts and went to Zynga in 2010 based on his belief in games-as-a-service and free-to-play as the business model of the future that could attract large markets. At Fortis, Las Vegas Sands was expected to be a long-term investor.
Fortis also announced that its game Twilight Towers will be discontinued on November 16.
In the announcement, Fortis said: “Over the past few months, our team has been working hard to improve Twilight Towers: introducing new features, rethinking major systems, and trying different approaches to make the game more engaging. We’ve asked you to endure a lot along the way, including progression resets and map changes. Your willingness to keep coming back and sharing your feedback has been very important to us.”
And Fortis added: “Ultimately, however, keeping a game live requires continued investment in development, content, servers, and player support, and despite our best efforts, we simply have not seen strong enough player retention to make the game sustainable. This is not a reflection on the players who supported us. We are grateful to the community that has grown around this game; the responsibility for this outcome lies with us.”
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