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Little Deviants Developer Closes Down, Killzone Vita Studio “Restructured”

By Ishaan . January 10, 2012 . 1:28pm

Little Deviants Developer Closes Down, Killzone Vita Studio Restructured

Sony have made changes to their internal game studios in Europe once again, Develop Online report. The company has closed down Bigbig Studios, responsible for the development of Little Deviants on the PlayStation Vita and for MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, released on the PSP in 2009.

 

Additionally, the SCE Cambridge studio has been restructured. This studio was at work on a Killzone title for the PlayStation Vita, and going forward, will partner with Guerilla Games in the Netherlands for this purpose. The extent of job losses is unclear.

 

This isn’t the first time in recent memory that Sony have had to restructure their studios. In 2010, the company restructured Studio Liverpool, the developers of the Wipeout series, after cancelling a number of projects the studio was working on. In 2011, Sony Online Entertainment were hit with the lay-offs of 205 people, and in-development MMO, The Agency, was cancelled.


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  • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

    Is the European economy truly that bad? I cant recall them ever closing the US studios during this same corporate restructuring. 

    • malek86

      Any measure taken would have to be in regard to the entire company. Games produced in the EU are also going to be sold worldwide, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

      If anything, I guess if they are trying to save on expenses, cutting european jobs would be more effective since the Euro is worth more than the dollar. But then, I don’t know if european developers get paid the same as american ones. Even so, I doubt that’s the reasoning behind these particular lay-offs.

      • HeatPhoenix

        I particularly doubt it because if they’re making a profit there’s no reason for lay-offs like this. So it’s more likely that Little Deviants did not sell as expected or they were just waiting for Little Deviants to come out before breaking the devs up.

  • http://twitter.com/charliesabers Carlos Escalante

    So unfortunate they couldn’t even release the game in the western world, it looks charming.

    • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

      Where does it say Little Deviants was cancelled? 

    • kupomogli

      Yeah.  Little Deviants isn’t cancelled.  It’s already been completed.  The development team either got laid off or was put on another team.  It’s one of two launch titles I’m interested in.

  • Solomon_Kano

    They’re partnering the Cambridge folks with Guerilla to work on Killzone Vita? Thank God. I didn’t exactly have the highest expectations for them.

    Pity about the closing though. I’ll be picking up Little Deviants, so I guess I’ll have to enjoy it doubly since it’s their last game.

  • http://twitter.com/josequijano jose

    One can only assume that they were going to see what to do with BigBig as soon as Little Deviants was out. They are both small teams despite BigBig’s name… lol.

    Unfortunately their other games Pursuit Force are not high-grossing games and Arctic Edge was probably the only one.

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