EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: closing

[Updated] Jason Kingsley, CEO Rebellion, has sent out a message: “No-one has been made redundant by Rebellion in more than a decade, and the Derby studio is very much still open while we conduct the review.

“We are currently undergoing a process of consultancy with our staff to get their ideas, and establish the best possible future for the Derby studio.” [End of Update]

It’s being strongly rumoured that the studio formerly known as Core Design (creators of Tomb Raider), and more recently going by the name of Rebellion Derby, has been closed down following the poor reception of Shellshock 2: Blood Trails and Rogue Warrior, both of which had been handled and developed by the studio in some capacity.

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Circuit City, a chain of electronics and gaming stores based in the US, has announced plans to close all 567 of their outlets in the United States.

Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in November of last year and then took the decision to close after acquisition talks with potential buyers failed to render any concrete buyout plans. The Canadian branch of Circuit City is said to still be in talks regarding a possible buyout.

Roughly 30 000 Circuit City employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

In a rumour that could very well prove true in the current economic climate, it’s being reported that the Australian division of Pandemic Studios has been shut down or, more accurately, cut loose from current owners, EA. One of the developers at the studio commented on the events:

“It was more of a ‘Find a new publisher. Good luck.’ kind of thing.”

Pandemic, Brisbane, have apparently been ‘set free’ from EA, being allowed to retain all original intellectual property, staff and office equipment. No news yet on how the Los Angeles-based division of Pandemic is affected, if at all.

The Australian studio is known for its work on the Destroy All Humans franchise, and was reported to be working on the game adaptation of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, which had, again according to rumour, been cancelled due to lack of direction on the project and spiralling development costs. The studio is said to now be working on a Wii party game of some description.

Confirmation as it’s available

According to Variety’s game blogmeister, Ben Fritz, the troubled Brash Entertainment is to officially close today.

The company made news when it was able to secure funding from investors to the tune of $400 million, but now those selfsame investors are pulling out, leaving Brash without the means to continue development.

Responsible for such recent titles as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jumper and Space Chimps, Brash’s core strategy relied on creating games based on existing franchises, with upcoming titles in their slate apparently including the likes of Saw, Superman and Night at the Museum 2. Poor sales of previous titles must have got investors’ nerves on edge, but another contributing factor is apparent.

Brash has also seen a list of high-profile members leave the company, such as Co-Founder and board member Thomas Tull, as well as Chief Creative Officer Larry Shapiro, both of whom might have instilled investor confidence before, but now with their departure, the money must not have seemed as certain as before.

Sad to see a company, whose intentions seemed honourable, go down like this.

It is being widely reported that publisher THQ is set to close some five internal development studios while a significant amount of employees from a further two studios will be let go.

Paradigm, Mass Media, Helixe, Locomotive Games and Sandblast Games have all been closed, officially as of today, according to a report on Gamespot, while Rainbow Studios and Juice Games have been affected by redundancies.

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EA has announced that it will be closing its virtual world EA-Land down. Formerly known as The Sims Online, EA-Land was opened in 2002 but re-named and re-branded in February this year.

In a post on EA-Land’s official blog, EA commented “The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.”

According to EA it will focus these resources on future games once the EA-Land service closes on the 1st of August. EA will end members’ subscription billing now so at least 60 days will be for free but members can cancel their account or subscription at any time. EA also pointed out that starting immediately PayPal cash-in will not be available.

EA is offering one of two gifts as a token of their appreciation if you are a paying subscriber as of the 29th of April. You can either cash in a $15 discount off any game at the EA Store or get three months of Club POGO subscription time.

EA senior vice president Luc Barthelet had this to say “We share the sadness of the entire community in writing this blog to announce that the EA-Land experiment is being brought to an end. Decisions such as these are never easy and the rationale for closing EA-Land is particularly complex. Regardless, it is hard to see the end of the collective investment of emotion, time and friendship.”