With the release of MotorStorm Apocalypse just around the corner, you would think that Sony’s European Studios would be doing well. Unfortunately, we received news today that this may not be the case.
In a statement received by Gamesindustry.biz, SCEE have confirmed that they will be suspending/canceling some current games that are being developed by their UK studios.
London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and even Evolution Studios – who are just about to release MotorStorm Apocalypse – are all being affected by this latest move.
Here is what the statement had to say:
It has been decided that production on a small number of projects within London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and Evolution Studios will be streamlined or closed due to a portfolio review and project prioritisation.
This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.
Continuing:
The affected first party studios have been and will continue to be vital assets within the WWS family, and have a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, SingStar and EyePet. This decision will have no impact on the role that our first party studios will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms.
As for now there wasn’t any list given for the affected games, so we can only guess that most of these titles were unannounced, and at least it seems the bigger titles were unaffected. It is also not yet known if any employees were let go, or if this was a simple reshuffling of their assets, but in these tough economic times, we can only hope on the latter.
Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle, as we will bring you any new information as we receive it.
