JoWooD Closes Development Studios

Officials from Austrian-headquartered publisher/developer JoWooD have announced that the company has closed its development studios in Ebensee, Austria, as well as the Wings Simulations studio in Hattingen, Germany. The Ebensee studio was most recently responsible for Transport Giant, while Wings created Soldner: Secret Wars – neither of which were significant sales successes. JoWooD put the closures down to “new established project evaluation and changes in development last year”. With a new internal team apparently refusing to green light projects which do not confirm to the criteria of “technical convertibility, gameplay, competition analysis, market segmentation and sales forecast as well as strategy conformity”, the implication is that both studios have been found wanting and ultimately closed. A deficit in sales and distribution last year and a subsequent change in overall group strategy - to concentrate on strategy, simulation and role-playing games - has also led to the decision. Around thirty jobs will be affected, but the company’s current product portfolio, which includes fiscal year 2005 games such as Gothic III and the licensed console title Stargate, will apparently not be changed as consequence.