Aussie studio employees let go amidst economic pressures; rumours of a loss of the license for The Force Unleashed 2 unconfirmed.
Hampered by industry cutbacks and a struggling economy, Australia’s biggest video game development studio Krome was forced to lay off an undisclosed number of employees cross its Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne locations last November. But it seems the studio is not out of the woods just yet, with the company today confirming to GameSpot AU that more staff members have been let go this week.
Word of Krome cuts first surfaced yesterday when AusGamers reported rumours that the developer had laid off more than 50 employees this week. AusGamers also reported that the studio has lost the license to develop the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for the Wii because of the poor review scores for some of the studio's other titles. Krome's previous games include Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, the upcoming Blade Kitten, and the recently released Games Room for Xbox Live.
Today, Krome representatives confirmed directly to GameSpot AU that it had suffered job cuts but refused to comment on whether they had or had not lost the license to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.
"We regret to confirm an unspecified number of positions have been eliminated today at Krome," the studio said in a statement to GameSpot AU. "The industry worldwide is facing new challenges, and Krome is not immune to the effects of this. Beyond that, we cannot make a comment."
Stay tuned to GameSpot AU for more information as it comes to hand.
They also made Transformers Revenge of the Fallen for the Wii and PS2, it was awful. Unless TFU2 for Wii is a extension of the original only with motion plus controls, more Jedi/Sith moves, superior presentation, better enemy AI (for stealth), physics (Wii Sports resort managed DMM) and level structure then Wii gamers have lost nothing. TFU wasn't all that bad on Wii, it was alot of fun but in the end we associate Star Wars games with quality on all front, TFU was incomplete at least on Wii.
How hard can it be to come up with a good game concept? I mean seriously... Barbie: Sparkling Ice Show? If I owned a game's company, I'd be disrespecting myself to release a game like that.
Yes their software out put is generally poor. However they did acquire Melbourne House, that team should be out putting top end software, which leads me to believe their management choose to output crap. Such a shame Melbourne House had some great in house tech and great guys and they produced great games.
"Games Room for Xbox Live." Lousy excuse for an arcade room indeed.I'm willing to bet that sealed their doom.Just a hunch.
lol Krome sucks. Fury was so awful. They haven't really made anything good at all, and they're Australia's best. Leave game development to the japanese. They know what they're doing.
Do it. Do it. Do it. Do create the Ting Tings video game series for PS3, XBOX 360, Wii and PS2! By the way, Who the hell is Krome?
To restore their reputation and add members, why did they must create video games based on The Ting Tings? 4 planned titles were written on The PS2 gamelist of mine. One of them might feature Sheryl Crow.
No Force Unleashed 2? Oh well. Now make Jedi Academy 2! And Battlefront 3! Do it. Do it. Do it.
@socialAnXieTy - krome is a brisbane based studio developer which was responsible for star wars the force unleashed.
they should just go back to making Ty games, the first 2 were amazing, I never played the third one but I heard it was pretty okay too.
Game Room might just be Kromes best game lol It's funny because it's not exactly a game but a place to play other classic games.....
That's too bad, they did the PS2, Wii, and PSP versions of Forced Unleashed, and all three ports combined sold almost as well as the Xbox 360 and PS3 version. But yeah, looking at their development history they have a lot of crap games in their portfolio.
If they really did lost the license, then I hope a better studio will make the Wii and perhaps PS2 version, so let it be better than the first installment.
I would expect this from the company that makes a game called "Blade Kitten" but i really hope these people find other jobs too...
Noooooo!!!!!! I hope this doesn't really affect the Force Unleashed 2, I can't wait for that game!!
Looks like Microsoft is the only gaming company actually making a profit, oh and Nintendo of course.
That they have to lay anyone off on such a high selling game tells you a bit about who's getting the money out there.
If they have lost The Force Unleashed I think that is very bad. Even though it was the wii port it was still a big name game and it never hurts to have a few of them on the portfolio when trying to attract publishers. Terrible news for everyone involved at Krome and everyone in the Australian games industry. Studios downsizing/closing down is always bad.
Whoa! I hope that IF they lost the license this doesn't mean there is not going to be a star wars force unleashed II for the Wii.
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