Only three months after the release of its heavily hyped first person shooter Homefront, its publisher THQ has announced that it will shut down the game"s main developer, New York City-based Kaos Studios. Gamasutra reports that that THQ will also close down another developer, the UK-based Digital Warrington. Between the two game developers it is estimated that about 115 employees are affected by this shutdown.
In a statement, THQ said that the closure of the two internal game developers are part of a "strategic realignment" for the company. Homefront"s development will continue at THQ"s Montreal studios. THQ also said that it is hiring for positions at its Montreal offices along with studios located in Vancouver and Austin. Team members who have been let go from Kaos and Digital Warrington will be able to be interviewed for the open positions at those studios.
The team that came to form Kaos Studios first got together in NYC to create the popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 as Trauma Studios. Battlefield"s creators Digital Illusions bought Trauma Studios in 2004 and the team helped to work on Battlefield 2. In 2005, DICE shut down Trauma Studios but the team members got together again as Kaos Studios which THQ formed in 2006. In 2008 the team released its first game, the multiplayer oriented first person shooter Frontlines Fuel of War. While it got solid reviews sales were just average.
Homefront, about a near-future invasion of the US by North Korea, got a ton of hype from THQ before its release last March. While the game reportedly sold a million copies in its first 10 days, the reviews for the game were just in the average range. It"s currently unknown if THQ"s Montreal studios will work on a full fledged sequel.