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Work on a sequel to action-packed racer Split/Second has been cancelled and around 100 staff are set to lose their job at Disney-owned Black Rock Studio, an anonymous source from the studio has told Eurogamer.
A team of around 40 staff will remain.
According to the source several projects, including sequels to Pure and Split/Second, have been canned – Split/Second 2 bit the dust in December 2010 due to the “changing priorities” at Disney Interactive Studios.
“We had a concept week (everyone in the studio working on small teams) to try to come up with new ideas, but nothing really stuck,” explained the source. “We had a freemium week sometime later with similar goals too.”
“The inactive portion of the studio has been expecting redundancies for months, so this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It’s sad that it’s come to this of course, but for many people they’ll be quite happy to take the money and go, as they’ve been sitting around doing nothing for months.”
A “good proportion” of the studio was said to be working on a “new and risky” project, with the source suggesting the cutbacks indicate Disney doesn’t want two teams working on such a title.
We loved Pure, and Split/Second was great fun while it lasted, so it’s sad to see another racing studio facing difficulties. It’s not clear if the new title is a racing game, or something of a departure for Black Rock.
