A bad day for gaming. Sony have confirmed what we rumoured a little while back – that developers Zipper have been closed down.
“The closure is a result of a normal cycle of resource re-alignment within SCE WWS,” said a statement from Sony. “Zipper has completed all work associated with its most recent project, Unit 13 for PlayStation Vita.”
“Zipper titles MAG, SOCOM 4 and Unit 13 will continue to be supported, including the new Daily Challenges in Unit 13.”
“After 17 years it’s time to head off into the sunset,” said the Zipper twitter in the last couple of hours. “A sincere thank you to all our fans for everything you’ve done for us. Farewell.”
Elsewhere, rumours about Sega started on Reddit a few hours ago – “Sega of America, operating out of San Francisco, is closing its doors,” said the posting. “Me and all our teams just received the sad news. I’ll miss working with that silly hedgehog.”
There’s no evidence that Sega are “closing its doors” but there does seem to be some chatter about job losses, sadly, in the QA department.
Two SEGA employees, picked up by GAF, seem to echo this. “My heart hurts as if part of it left the building with the others,” says one, who also retweeted the following: “Sega of America news actually breaks my heart. Good luck to all looking for work after the layoffs.”
“It’s been a good 6 years,” says another. “I’m leaving with a lot of brilliant memories. It’s a sad day but on to new things.”
The news follows Sega’s dramatically bad ¥7.1 billion loss, which promised “restructuring”, especially of the EU and US offices.
The Lone Steven
That is a massive shame. :( I think MAG 2 or MAFG 2(Massive Action F*cking game, the initials for Massive F*cking Action Game spells another name for a cigerette) would have sold loads if they implented vehicles.
I hope the staff can get another job at another studio or set up a brand new shiny studio.
Sympozium
I thought it had vehicles?
yogdog
It did indeed. They didn’t feel as good as those on Battlefield but they did exist in the game.
JBoo
I want ‘MORE’ SONY Studios not less :( But thank god SONY do have LOADS of excellent game Studios still :P
Sympozium
I want less of the hype
jeanbailey
Regardless of being one of the most significant names in electronics, Sony has been publishing enormous losses for four years running. The company has announced that it is anticipating a quarterly loss of almost $3 billion and is firing 10,000 workers. The effects of natural disasters that hit Japan as well as the massive flooding in Thailand, affects Sony’s manufacturing that leads to tremendous losses at the end of 2011 and the fiscal year that has just ended. In addition to that, its chemicals operations which are being sold to the Development Bank of Japan, Sony is also going to reduce its workforce by 6 percent, or 10,000 people. There are several top executives that are also being asked to return bonuses, according to MSNBC. Article Source: 10K workers to get pink slips in Sony layoffs.