This is terribly sad news for those of you who loved the Ps3 exclusive Warhawk-in-space third person shooter StarHawk; the studios confirmed numerous layoffs – but that’s nit the half of it. worse, the studio’s being refocused in to a mobile games developer, and pretty much giving up on the PS3.
Lightbox Studios president Dylan Jacob confirmed the layoff of 24 staff in a statement sent to GameInformer – as well as the sad, sad reason.
“All 24 employees were also given a severance package,” he said, noting that the lay-offs were announced ahead of time to give staff time to prepare and begin seeking new employment.
“Why the lay-offs? Well, as you know the industry is changing. We are moving away from traditional console development to self-fund the development of our next game on Apple’s iOS devices.”
Lightbox was meant to make a couple of games for Sony’s PS3 – but the two companies are no longer BF’s.
“Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that it has amicably ended its working agreement with developer LightBox Interactive, Inc. We have had a positive and long-standing working relationship with this talented studio, and wish them the best of success in their next endeavor. Starhawk and Warhawk will continue to be supported by Santa Monica Studio,” a Sony spokesperson said.
“Santa Monica Studio and Sony Computer Entertainment are fantastic people and great to work with. We have had, and will continue to have, a great relationship with everyone over there and I have no doubt that they’ll continue to bring the kick-ass games – and hardware – to gamers everywhere,” Jobe added.
It’s a damned shame – because Warhawk and Starhawk were both awesome games if you sunk enough time in to them, offering some of the best multiplayer available on Sony’s black box. That’s the third PlayStation exclusive developer that’s gone rogue or belly up in recent times, joining SOCOM’s Zipper Interactive and Wipeout developer Studio Liverpool.
Sucks.
Last Updated: October 18, 2012
