Idol Minds, the Louisville, Colorado-based company behind the comedic physics-based downloadable PlayStation 3 title
Pain, has reportedly lost half of its staff amid budget cuts.
A person claiming to have been laid off from the studio emailed Gamasutra with extra information, alleging that the headcount reductions resulted from "Sony budget cuts." Idol Minds' official website listed 50 people under the header "Idol Crew."
Sony and Sony PR have not responded to comment requests as of press time. Idol Minds has been around for 11 years, and previously worked on PS2 games including
Coolboarders 3, 4, and 2001, as well as the PS1 game
Rally Cross 2. Idol Minds' website says the company has sold over 5 million units.
The company's most recent game is the PlayStation Network game
Pain, a physics-based game that involves launching a ragdoll-like character into the landscape, with players scoring points and achieving combos for inflicting blunt-force pain on the avatar.
In January this year, Sony said that
Pain, released in November 2007, was the most-downloaded PSN game at that point. Idol Minds has continued to update
Pain with downloadable content.
Gamasutra will update this story with more information as it becomes available.
