Who Is Making End of Abyss? Section 9 Interactive

End of Abyss is made by Section 9 Interactive, a small studio in Malmö, Sweden founded in 2020 by three former Tarsier Studios developers: brothers Marcus and Mattias Ottvall and Gustaf Heinerwall. Epic Games Publishing publishes the game, which launched October 1, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Epic Games Store at $29.99.

Official source: End of Abyss launch post on Xbox Wire — written by Marcus Ottvall, credited as Co-Founder, Section 9 Interactive, on September 30, 2026: "From our small studio Section 9 Interactive, founded by three former Tarsier Studios members, comes the sci-fi action adventure game End of Abyss."

Who founded Section 9 Interactive

Three people, and two of them are brothers. Game Informer named them in its May 12, 2026 feature: "Brothers Mattias and Marcus Ottvall and Gustaf Heinerwall worked on Little Nightmares and its sequel for Tarsier Studios, but End of Abyss is their first game after branching out and establishing their own studio." Marcus Ottvall signs the studio's own launch post on Xbox Wire with the title Co-Founder, which is the most direct confirmation of his role on an official channel.

The studio itself dates to 2020. Its LinkedIn company page states "Founded in 2020, Section 9 Interactive is an independent video game studio located in Malmö, Sweden," with headquarters in Malmö, Skåne County, and lists Marcus Ottvall, Mattias Ottvall and Gustaf Heinerwall under leadership, all as Co-Founder. The official End of Abyss account on X was created in October 2020, and PC Gamer wrote about the then-unnamed project on January 2, 2021, calling Section 9 a "new studio" composed of developers who worked on Little Nightmares, its sequel and LittleBigPlanet for the PS Vita.

As for size: the LinkedIn page described a small team with long industry experience, and it listed nine employees when this page was last updated. The store copy is blunter — "a small team in Malmö Sweden, led by experienced developers known for crafting hit games." Nobody outside the studio publishes a headcount, so treat any "X-person studio" claim, including older ones on this site, as the founder count rather than the payroll.

Official source: Section 9 Interactive company site — "Section 9 is a small videogames studio located in Malmö, Sweden," with the game listed as published by Epic Games Publishing and an Epic MegaGrants recipient logo in the footer.

What the Tarsier Studios connection actually means

Tarsier Studios is a Swedish developer in Malmö that has been running since 2004 and is best known for Little Nightmares; its own studio page confirms the city. The three Section 9 founders worked there on Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2 before leaving to start their own company, which is why every announcement calls them former Tarsier members instead of Tarsier staff.

The distinction matters for expectations. Section 9 is an independent studio, not a Tarsier team or a Tarsier spin-off product line, and End of Abyss is its debut rather than a sequel to anything. What carried over is craft, not intellectual property: reviewers keep tracing the clay-doll character shapes, the tilted overhead camera and the habit of dropping a silent protagonist into a story already in motion back to the founders' Little Nightmares work. For how that plays out genre by genre, see what End of Abyss actually is, and for what is knowable about Cel herself, the Cel and story page.

Nothing in the studio's public material describes Tarsier as an owner, partner or publisher of Section 9. The two companies share a city, a founding talent pool and a visual lineage, and that is as far as the documented relationship goes.

How Epic became the publisher

Epic came in before the game had a name the public could search. On November 26, 2024, news broke that Epic Games Publishing would publish the studio's sci-fi action adventure, with coverage noting a Swedish studio made up of former Little Nightmares developers. The relationship predates even that: the studio's X account announced an Epic MegaGrants award, and the recipient logo still sits on its website footer next to the Unreal Engine logo.

Two things follow from that deal, and players mix them up constantly:

• Epic Games Publishing is the publisher — funding, marketing and storefront support. Store pages and credits list the game as developed by Section 9 Interactive.
• The Epic Games Store is the PC storefront, which is why there is no Steam edition. No Steam listing existed as of October 10, 2026, and the PC build is sold through Epic only.

The publisher deal also funded the extras buyers get: a standalone free demo on the Epic Games Store, an Xbox free trial, a one-hour PS Plus Premium trial, and the Cel outfit gifted to Fortnite when you buy the game on Epic. Buying decisions around all of that sit on the review roundup.

How the team reshaped the game during development

The clearest window into the studio's thinking is the co-founder's own launch post. The project started as something else entirely: "What started as an action-based top-down shooter, developed into a slower, more dynamic and atmospheric experience as we became more interested in exploration and creating a stronger sense of tension." The team then identified a gap — "we had not really seen very many top-down metroidvania games with action horror elements" — and treated that absence as the reason to keep going.

Art direction followed the same route. Ottvall writes that early builds had movement, equipment and small levels but "didn't have a clear focus when it came to its visual identity," so the team reached for the films, games, comics and anime of the 1980s and 1990s, aiming for a weathered look that still reads as a new world. Enemy production ran on fast Unreal mockups — rough animation tests and prototype creatures — before anything was committed, which is how a three-founder studio shipped a roster of bosses without a large art department.

All of that lands in the finished game as pacing and texture rather than as feature checkboxes: a top-down twin-stick camera, gated backtracking, and rooms that are dark on purpose. The beginner guide translates those decisions into what to do in your first hour.

Studio timeline from 2020 to launch

FAQ

Who makes End of Abyss? Section 9 Interactive, an independent studio in Malmö, Sweden, founded in 2020 by Marcus Ottvall, Mattias Ottvall and Gustaf Heinerwall. Epic Games Publishing publishes it.

Is Section 9 Interactive part of Tarsier Studios? No. The three founders worked at Tarsier Studios on Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2, then left to form their own company. Section 9 is an independent studio, and End of Abyss is its first game.

Is End of Abyss made by Epic? No. Epic Games Publishing publishes the game and the Epic Games Store distributes the PC version; Section 9 Interactive develops it. Epic also awarded the studio a MegaGrant before the publishing deal.

Is Section 9 a three-person studio? Three founders, yes. The full team is larger — its LinkedIn page listed nine employees as of October 2026 — but nobody has published an official headcount, and store copy only ever says "a small team."

Is this the studio's first game? Yes. Coverage from 2021 onward describes an unnamed project in development, and Game Informer states outright that End of Abyss is the founders' first game after leaving Tarsier.

Will End of Abyss come to Steam? No Steam edition was listed as of October 10, 2026. PC players buy it on the Epic Games Store; PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are the console versions. There is also no Switch version.

Related Guides

• What Is End of Abyss? — the genre, the camera and the backtracking tax that define the game.
• End of Abyss on the Epic Games Store — accounts, system requirements and the free demo on PC.
• Review roundup: is it worth $29.99? — four launch reviews scored the same build from 6 to 90.
• Cel and the story — what is actually knowable about the protagonist and the facility.
• How long to beat — story completion versus a full Logbook clear.