The developers of one of PlayStation VR’s biggest games, RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, are soon to be no more.
Guerrilla Cambridge, the UK-based developer behind the high-profile multiplayer FPS, is to close, owner Sony has confirmed to UploadVR today. A statement given to us reads: “Having reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term, we have decided that in order to deliver on our strategic objectives, it is necessary to make some changes to the European studios structure.
“As a result, it has been decided that Guerrilla Cambridge Studio will close.”
The statement adds that the closure will regrettably lead to “compulsory redundancies” but “by focusing on other Studios with exciting new projects in development, (including continued work on PlayStation®VR), we believe we will be in a stronger position going forward and able to offer the best possible content of the highest quality to our players.”
RIGS was one of the biggest games of PlayStation VR’s launch line-up, and one of the few to be developed internally at Sony. We awarded the game an 8/10 at launch, praising its control schemes and modes. Since then the team issued a major Winter Update for the game adding more content. We’ve asked Sony about the status of possible future DLC updates for the game and will update this page if we hear back.
Cambridge’s 19 year history holds many fan favorite PlayStation games, including the MediEvil franchise on the original PlayStation and, more recently, shooter spin-off Killzone: Mercenary for PlayStation Vita. The developer’s linked studio, Amsterdam-based Guerrilla Games, remains unaffected and working on anticipated PlayStation 4 exclusive, Horizon: Zero Dawn.
The closure follows a trend of Sony shutting down UK-based studios shortly after the launch of new games on new hardware over the past five years. Wipeout developer Sony Liverpool was closed in 2012 not long after the launch of the PlayStation Vita and its game for the platform, Wipeout 2048. The same was true of Lemmington Spa-based Bigbig Studios, and last year the company closed Driveclub developer Evolution Studios before it could even release its own PS VR title, Driveclub VR [Review: 7/10]. Work on the game continued internally at Sony and the team would go on to find a home at Codemasters.
PlayStation VR Worlds [Review: 5/10] developer SIE London Studio also saw layoffs after the launch of its game late last year, though the studio remains open and working on its next PS VR project. Sony also opened a new development team, North West Studio, which is to exclusively make VR content.
