Report: Deadly Premonition U.S. Publisher Ignition To Close London Studio

Deadly Premonition U.S. publisher Ignition will close down its London game development studio next month, and may outsource remaining development on Wardevil and Project Kane to external partners, according to a report from UK site GamesIndustry.biz [registration required]. Ignition Entertainment chairman Said Hassan Sadiq said in a statement that the Ealing, London location will close, but a London office will still operate as a publishing headquarters for the company after development operations cease. "This week saw the pre-scheduled completion of a six month proof of concept project on the War Devil / Project Kane titles internally, which the board and studio management are currently evaluating as to whether the required quality will be achieved by completing internally or with an external partner," he said. The report added that the studio is expected to close by October 31 this year with an undisclosed amount of staff losing their jobs. Sadiq said, "Development is ramping up at Ignition's free-to-play studios based in Austin and Beijing, as well as at internal console development studios in Florida (Reich) and Tokyo (El Shaddai -- winner of CESA's most anticipated title at TGS 2010)." Ignition most recently published the online shooter Blacklight: Tango Down for Xbox Live Arcade and PC. Planned action game WarDevil was originally unveiled in 2004, back when the Xbox 360 was still referred to as "Xbox 2." Ignition was acquired by Indian media conglomerate UTV Group in 2007. The reported upcoming closure comes shortly after Ignition announced an increased emphasis on online platforms, even as internal development of packaged console games like WarDevil and El Shaddai continued.