Black box, the studio responsible for the Need for Speed and Skate franchises has officially been given the chop. EA has said in a press release:
"Shutting down the studio is part of EA’s restructuring plan that hopes to save them US$ 120 million in annual costs. Part of the plan is to reduce their overall workforce by 10%, or 1,000 people."
The press release had also stated the Black Box is only 1 of 9 studios that will be getting consolidated or shut down. it’s a damn shame isn’t it.
Well as long as they don’t decide to cut any of the guys from Bioware I think we will survive.
Let’s just hope that the upcoming Skate. 2 has been passed on to another game house or at least will get a chance to be finished. And who knows, EA might decide to keep the Need for Speed Franchise and just pass it on to another dev (maybe a better one). We’ll have to wait and see...
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When talking about Undercover, John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts CEO, also confirmed a thirteenth Need for Speed title is under development. The development of this title started after ProStreet. However, Electric Playground claim to have information that this title and all future plans for the Need for Speed franchise has been cancelled, due to the disappointing sales of Undercover and internal reorganisations. Other sources claim that it's EA Black Box, the studio which develops the franchise, not Need for Speed itself, that is shutting down, moving resources to the bigger EA Canada studios. Development of the next NFS instalment would instead be done by Criterion Games, developers of the Burnout franchise. EA has not made any official announcement.
fonte: EA Foruns
Não seria surpresa que deixassem mesmo de produzir NFSs, depois da barraca que estes últimos deram, mas é esperar para ver o desfecho definitivo.
