You may or may not have heard of Spark Unlimited. They were behind a few less-than-successful, not particularly critically acclaimed games, like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Legendary. More recently, they’ve been doing work for other publishers, working alongside Capcom to create the nearly decent Lost Planet 3 and the mostly-awful Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. They’re now gone.
Yes, another studio is no more. Though you likely don’t really care – because let’s be honest, they’ve hardly created anything of real worth, it’s always sad to see studio shut down, and even sadder for those who’re now out of a job.
News of it came to light via neoGAF, which showed that the company was auctioning off all of its equipment – and when that equipment includes the fridge, telephones and oven, it’s generally not a good sign.
News of the closure was later confirmed to IGN by Spark’s CTO, John Butrovich.
“Spark Unlimited is closing as a video game developer. The ongoing opportunities for smaller mobile development doesn’t service the needs nor desires of Spark as an entity,” he said.
“As such, Spark as we know will cease operations with various splinter efforts focusing on some new dynamic projects inside and outside of game development.”
As much as their games failed to make any significant impact on sales charts, I’m a little saddened. Spark Unlimited seems like a company that was on the verge of a breakthrough. Lost Planet 3, though wholly mediocre, introduced some interesting and fresh ideas that with a bit of tweaking (and a better campaign) could have been good.
Last Updated: May 5, 2015
Admiral Chief
May 5, 2015 at 08:08
Always sad to hear when something like this closes down :/
justlikemo
May 5, 2015 at 08:17
Good games I enjoyed lost planet. One of those fun titles you could play alone or which was just that more fun with 2 players on PS.
Admiral Chief
May 5, 2015 at 08:18
As did I. Tough as nails at certain segments, but very rewarding
justlikemo
May 5, 2015 at 08:23
oh man, tell about it, some of those bosses army of 2 had nothing on them, you just needed another players help.
RinceThis
May 5, 2015 at 08:19
Shame man. Sadly in an industry as saturated as gaming you need to be awesome to survive. They should have developed a game for One Direction, they’d be rolling in it by now…
Lord Chaos
May 5, 2015 at 08:23
Are they also selling the kitchen sink?
Ranting Raptor
May 5, 2015 at 08:28
Sad news. So many lost jobs. Really sucks
Lord Chaos
May 5, 2015 at 08:31
So how does 30 feel?
Admiral Chief
May 5, 2015 at 08:35
Hurhurhur (look out for the 16h00 article today…)
Lord Chaos
May 5, 2015 at 08:39
But that’s like, 7 hours away…
Admiral Chief
May 5, 2015 at 08:39
XD
Ranting Raptor
May 5, 2015 at 09:59
The same as yesterday when I was 29 lol. Except lots of people talking to me. Which is nice 🙂
WitWolfy
May 5, 2015 at 08:31
Wasn’t David Hayter reported to be writing a screenplay for a movie of this game?? I’m sure I read something about that back in 2010-ish…
Tbone187
May 5, 2015 at 15:21
It would make for a good movie indeed!