Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Epic Games, developer of Gears of War, is closing its newest studio, Impossible Games.
Right before E3 2012, Epic made a significant announcement: it created a new studio.
It was significant because the studio was primarily made up of ex-staffers from Big
Huge Games, the Baltimore, Maryland-based studio that, along with its parent company
38 Studios, made Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
You may remember 38 Studios imploded last year shortly after the release of Amalur.
At the time, Epic Games’ Michael Capps explained that his company wanted to “keep together
some of the key talent displaced by the [Big Huge Games] layoff,” handing them an Epic
property to work on.
That property ended up being Infinity Blade: Dungeons, an iOS action RPG.
We were impressed with Infinity Blade: Dungeons when we played it last year. But now we might
not ever get to play the final version.
Epic announced that it's “closing Impossible Studios”. Here’s the full statement from
Epic Games’ Founder Tim Sweeney.
“When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to
help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team.
It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately
it wasn’t working out for Epic.
In addition to providing Impossible Studios employees with 3 months of severance pay,
we’ll be giving the team the opportunity to form a new company with the Impossible
Studios name and the awesome Impossibear logo.
This means that Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now on hold as we figure out the future of
the project.”
Our best wishes go out to all of those affected by the studio’s closure. Here’s hoping
the team can continue on in an independent capacity, and that the Impossible Studios
name doesn’t prove to be unfortunately literal.
For more on the video game industry, stay tuned to IGN.