BreakAway Closes Nascent Austin Studio

Following up on reports from individuals close to the studio, Gamasutra has confirmed with BreakAway Games that the company, best known for 'serious game' titles such as Pulse!!, has closed its small Austin office, which was working on a next-gen original IP game prototype. Deb Tillett, who is Executive Vice President and General Manager at Breakaway Games, offered the following information on the closure to Gamasutra: "The studio had 11 employees who were all offered full time positions and the option to relocate to either our corporate headquarters in Hunt Valley or the Corpus Christi, Texas studio. The Austin team was working on an original IP, next-gen title. Over the last year, BreakAway has had the opportunity to build a very talented tools and next-gen development team in Hunt Valley to support mosbe - the Lite Simulation Development Platform created to power serious games and our continued work on several major entertainment products. We are also working in partnership with Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi to develop Pulse!!, the first-ever virtual learning lab for military and medical health professionals. It was a very hard decision to close the studio in Austin, but we needed to focus the company's efforts and resources on these projects." BreakAway, which brought on an expanded management team earlier this year, is a two time Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 winner, and continues to employ more than 100 people in its Hunt Valley, MD headquarters and at its Corpus Christi, TX studios.