Evolution Studios, the studio behind World Rally Championship, MotorStorm and the recent Playstation 4 exclusive racing game, Driveclub, has shut down as confirmed by Sony. While the game was a bit of a mess at launch, the developers worked hard and turned it into one of the best racing titles on the PS4. They even added a DLC, which brought bikes to the game.
Just a year ago, 55 people had been cut from Evolution and today Sony made a hard choice of closing down the Studio itself. To be honest I haven’t played much of Driveclub, but Motorstorm was a memorable part of my life especially the apocalypse edition.
Sony released a statement to gamesindustry.biz stating:
“Regular reviews take place throughout SCE Worldwide Studios, ensuring that the resources that we have in such a competitive landscape can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects.As part of this process we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to the European studios structure.
As a result, it has been decided that Evolution Studio will close.
It is regrettable that this decision will lead to compulsory redundancies. We accept that this decision will mean that we risk losing high calibre staff but by focusing on other Studios that already have exciting new projects in development we believe we will be in a stronger position going forward and able to offer the best possible content of the highest quality for our consumers.
Where possible we will try to reallocate people onto other projects. If appropriate opportunities are not possible within the company, we will assist staff in any way we can, including speaking with local employers and with other development companies.
Evolution has been an important part of SCE Worldwide Studios for over 10 years – working on ground-breaking racing titles like WRC, Motorstorm and DRIVECLUB.
This decision should not take anything away from the great work that Evolution has produced.”
It is always sad to see good studios closing down and great game devs losing their jobs, though we are sure that with their skill they will land on their feet.
The thing that still remains in doubt is what does the future holds for Driveclub.Will there be any more updates, patches and DLC’s for it, or is it the end of the IP ?
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