Toronto-based VR studio and Entertainment One (eOne) subsidiary Secret Location has shut down, according to co-founder and president Ryan Andal.

The studio closed its doors last week after more than a decade in operation, Andal announced in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday (Oct. 11), stating the closure is “part of a number of areas of business [eOne owner] Hasbro is divesting from.”

“Some of the things we built will be moving under different divisions within Hasbro, and I’m happy to see the work being passionately moved forward by some members of my team. But many of my friends and coworkers were dismissed as part of this overall restructuring and shut down, myself included,” wrote Andal.

Hasbro is currently undergoing a “strategic review” of its “non-Hasbro-branded initiatives,” said CEO Chris Cocks in a statement to investors on Oct. 4. He said that they are “evaluating other assets in the portfolio focused on content unrelated to Hasbro’s IP” and “exploring how best to maximize the growth and value” of assets such as The Rookie, Yellowjackets, and the Mark Gordon library.

Secret Location was acquired by eOne in 2016, two years after it made an equity investment in the company and increased their collaborations, including a VR experience for the reality series Ball Up: Search for the Next.

Neither eOne or Hasbro has responded to a request for comment as of press time.

Hasbro has already divested some of eOne’s assets following its acquisition of the studio in late 2019, selling eOne Music to U.S. investment firm Blackstone in 2021. Changes have also been made within eOne’s operations, with the company ending its theatrical distribution work in Canada and Spain earlier this year.

Secret Location was founded in 2009 by Andal, James Milward and Pietro Gagliano. It has received several accolades during its more than a decade of operations, touting itself as the first company to create a serialized VR narrative. Its narrative VR projects include The Great C (pictured) and short-form series Halcyon.

The company was also the first to win a Primetime Emmy for its VR work, winning an interactive media award for the Oculus Rift project based on the Fox series Sleepy Hollow. In addition, it won the Canadian Screen Awards’ Outstanding Media Innovation Award for its invention of the VR and AR publishing platform Vusr.

“Having had some time to reflect on these last 14 years, it’s been a beautiful journey building this company… I am so proud of all of it, the successes, the failures, the attempts, and everything in between,” wrote Andal. “Although I mourn the shut down of Secret Location and everything it’s meant to me and so many people, I’m excited for what comes next. I’m certainly not done with immersive entertainment.”