Eidos Confirms Pivotal Studios Closure

Representatives from British publisher Eidos Interactive have confirmed to Gamasutra that the company has made the majority of staff at internal developer Pivotal Studios redundant. A total of 93 to 95 staff are to be let go, but despite earlier reports that the majority of other staff will be let go after three months Eidos has indicated that the remaining staff will now be “considered part of the ongoing team and structure at Eidos." Speaking to studio head Louise Anderson, Gamasutra understands that staff have been informed and are currently in a consultation process over the redundancies. No decision has yet been made regarding whether the Pivotal Studios name will be retained, but a team of ten to twelve will be kept in the city to work on unspecified future projects. After creating real-time strategy title Warzone 2100 and movie license The Great Escape, Pivotal Studios has worked exclusively on the Conflict series, beginning with the successful Conflict: Desert Storm and Desert Storm II. Later sequels such as Conflict: Vietnam, Global Storm (aka Global Terror) and the most recent Denied Ops have proven less successful for the company. The redundancies follow the announcement from Eidos Interactive parent company SCi in February, that 25 percent of staff worldwide would be made redundant - reducing the company’s workforce to “no more than 800 people”. At the same time fourteen projects were cancelled and plans begun to cut annual operating costs by £14 million by the end of June 2008.