Newsbrief: A report from Polygon reveals that Spark Unlimited, the Los Angeles-based developer of such games as Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Lost Planet 3, and Call of Duty: Finest Hour, has laid off its employees and ceased to make video games.
Spark CTO John Butrovich told Polygon "it's the end of Spark as a game developer." Some studio employees will continue to work together on other non-game projects. The studio had also worked on a film.
Gamasutra's own sources also confirmed trouble at the company in the run-up to the shut-down, and a NeoGAF poster uncovered an auction for the studio's assets, including furniture and computers.
The studio was first founded in 2002 and had been working on a free-to-play project when it shut down. It had recently lost a contract to develop a game for a major publisher.