Epic games, maker of
Gears of War and the popular Unreal Engine, is shutting down its Maryland-based studio Impossible Studios after just six months.
First announced
in August, Impossible was formed from the ashes of Big Huge Games, the
Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning developer that was destroyed when owner 38 Studios went bankrupt. The studio director was Sean Dunn, previous GM at Big Huge Games, and former THQ creative director behind the
Dawn of War and
Company of Heroes series.
The studio was in charge of
Infinity Blade Dungeons, the prequel to Epic's popular iOS series, which was created by another of its external studios, Chair Entertainment.
That game was
delayed from its initial release date last year, and has yet to appear on the App Store. Epic did not specifically say that the project wasn't going as well as expected, though founder Tim Sweeney did comment that the partnership "wasn't working out," and that the game is on hold while Epic figures out what to do with it.
"When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team," he said in
a statement.
"It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn’t working out for Epic."
Epic isn't leaving the studio's employees out in the cold, however. Sweeney says that they're all getting three months of severance pay, and allowing them to form a new company with the same name and logo.
