Headstrong Boss Laid Off As Studio Shifts Away From Wii

UK-based developer Kuju laid off the studio head of House of the Dead: Overkill creator and subsidiary Headstrong Games, as Kuju distances itself from a Wii business that "has thinned a little." Headstrong studio head Bradley Crooks was made redundant at the end of June, GamesIndustry.biz reported Wednesday. The studio's team stood at 70 members at the beginning of the year, but that number has since been halved, according to the report. "Headstrong was a bigger studio at the beginning of the year, but it was in a more fragile state than at present as a result of being pretty much solely reliant on Wii work, which as we all know has thinned a little," said Kuju CEO Nigel Robbins. The executive said Crooks did an "excellent job" while Headstrong was in its growth phase. Gamasutra recently reported that U.S. retail sales figures for June showed third party game sales were continuing to lag on the Wii. Headstrong focused on Wii development with the 2009 profanity-laced light gun shooter House of the Dead: Overkill and 2007's Battalion Wars 2. Robbins said that Steve Pritchard and Tancred Dyke-Wells will now lead the studio, as it now concentrates on "three significant bits of business" for PlayStation 3 and the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld. He added that the studio "will remain Wii-friendly." Other Kuju studios include Zoe Mode, DoubleSix and Vatra. In April this year, Kuju landed a new CEO in Robbins as co-founders Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth left their operational roles.