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Developers of the wonderful Deus Ex, the not-as-bad-as-everyone-makes-out sequel Invisible War, the more or less ignored Thief: Deadly Shadows and the turd on a stick that was Daikatana, Ion Storm has closed its doors for the last time in Austin, Texas.
An official statement released by Eidos, owners of the company, said: “Eidos today announced that it is to consolidate down its North American internal development capabilities from two studios to one. This will mean the immediate closure of the Ion Storm studio.” This consolidation has cost 35 jobs and has caused quite an outpouring of grief from the PC community.
Whilst the company were the ones that brought Deus Ex to us all, they also brought a great number of forgettable or poor titles to the table. Warren Spector, one of the main visionaries behind the original Deus Ex, resigned towards the end of last year and the company was seemingly on a downward spiral – this announcement confirmed what a lot of people saw as inevitable.
Whilst any news of a developer closing its doors is of the bad kind, we at Pro-G doubt this will be the end of the Deus Ex and Thief series’ – Eidos aren’t stupid enough to throw those away along with the company.
Eidos’ only North American development studio remaining is now San Francisco-based Crystal Dynamics. We’ll have to see if they pick up any old Ion Storm licences.
