Report: Voluntary Layoffs Expected at Disney's Black Rock

May 5, 2011

According to a source close to Split/Second and Pure developer Black Rock Studios, 100 staff members are to be laid off. Speaking to Eurogamer, a trusted source says that roughly 100 Black rock employees will face a "voluntary" layoff, leaving about 40 to continue working on current projects. The wholly owned Disney studio has been unable to successfully pitch new project ideas to its parent company, according to the source:

"It seems Disney have been unable to provide us with a project to work on, and our concept pitches clearly haven't gone down well (despite there being many of them)," the inside source said. "The inactive portion of the studio has been expecting redundancies for months, so this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. It's sad that it's come to this of course, but for many people they'll be quite happy to take the money and go, as they've been sitting around doing nothing for months."

The source goes on to say that what remains of the team is working on a "promising" but "new and risky" title. Sequels to racers Pure and Split/Second are not in the works, according to the source.

Source: GI.biz

Posted in

Comments

Re: Report: Voluntary Layoffs Expected at Disney's Black ...

Submitted by Adamas Draconis on Thu, 05/05/2011 - 22:15.

Query: WTF is a "Voluntary" lay-off? When I've been laid-off I never had a choice in the matter. It's always I go to work and get told at the door "We can't use you anymore".

Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.

Re: Report: Voluntary Layoffs Expected at Disney's Black ...

Submitted by Magic on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 02:46.

It's like an offer you can't refuse.

Seriously, if they don't take it then they'll likely be dismissed.

Kudos to Blackrock, Split/Second was a really fun game. It always seems to be the developers who are paying for the awful actions of management.

Re: Report: Voluntary Layoffs Expected at Disney's Black ...

Submitted by ddrfr33k on Thu, 05/05/2011 - 20:59.

That's a shame...I loved Split/Second. Definitely an innovative title.

Treasure bin: Cult Hits, chea pass gaming options, and rants about gaming in general

Poll

Shout box

DorthLous: Anybody tried Hiversaire? Thoughts?05/22/2013 - 5:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: New Humble Bundle Weekly Sale. Alan Wake: https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly No Linux or Mac support. :(05/22/2013 - 1:46pm

E. Zachary Knight: Microsoft talks about the lack of backward compatability. You're backwards. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192801/If_youre_backwards_compatible_youre_really_backwards.php05/22/2013 - 1:39pm

E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-22-microsoft-wont-let-indies-self-publish-on-xbox-one And the hits just keep on coming.05/22/2013 - 9:20am

E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

All shouts

<< Return To Top

Forgot your password?
Username :
Password :