Ah, the brutal realities of AAA game development: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was a generally well received entry in Gearbox's lootin', shootin' series – but the developer no longer exists. Kotaku broke the news courtesy of an anonymous source, but publisher 2K Games has since confirmed the closure.
"We can confirm that we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams," a statement said. "We are very grateful for the team's valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible."
We can obviously understand why it would want its creative teams close together, but this blows for the staff affected – especially seeing as they made a great game. The developer's contributed to various big projects over the years, such as all three BioShock titles. The very best of luck to all of those let go.
[source kotaku.com.au, via vg247.com]
Comments 5
Obviously I feel sorry for the people involved but the harsh reality is that many companies like to keep their 'assets' close. I don't know if this is a direct result of the gaming industry or the general climate but its not the only company to close down various outlying branches regardless of their individual success. Australia itself isn't exactly close to the big gaming markets and has some very strict censorship laws too.I wonder if these had more impact on 2K's decision...
I must admit that I was very disappointed with the Pre-sequel. I bought the Handsome Collection and played through the story of Borderlands 2 first but can't say I am enjoying my playthrough of the pre-sequel any where near as much. I really didn't think much to Bioshock 2 and the setting of Bioshock Infinite put me off (although I will give it a chance as it was free on GwG) The only other game I can think of was the Bureau: XCOM declassified and that game didn't appeal so never bought/played it.
I do hope though that their talent goes to forming their own studio and continue developing games.
Maybe it's just me, but seems less harsh than usual. Usually they may people off, but here they're trying to reassign them if they can.
"Moon Zoomies."
Neva 4get.
First sentence should be changed to the brutal realities of AAA development in Australia.
@BAMozzy why do you feel sorry for people that choose to work in a field that is known to do this on a regular basis? If not closing down shop completely, most will at least cut their work force by a huge percentage after each major release. This is the fact of this field, if you can't handle that, don't go into the field. I don't feel sorry for them at all.
In fact, I often laugh when I read stories like this. Even though I hate that the studio is closing its doors, I recognize that this needs to get worse, so that people start voting by not working for big companies that do this (obviously closing down is a little different than cutting staff) before it gets better. I avoid this field all together and work on indies or other software projects, just because the field is too unstable, and it needs to explode so we can pick up the pieces and have a better field.
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