THQ closes Kaos Studios

The house that built Homefront has been shut down. THQ today confirmed it is closing the doors to its New York based Kaos Studios, and will be shifting all future work on Homefront content to the publisher's offices in Montreal.

News of the closure leaked this afternoon when Zach Wilson, a writer and designer at Kaos,told his Twitter followershe and fellow staffers had heard of the impending shut down, adding in a later update that, “I found a place to land. We all saw this coming and many devs have moved on to bigger better things.”

In its statement to Gamasutra, THQ said the Homefront franchisewill be looked after byitstalent in Quebec, Canada, explaining, “The Montreal studio will take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise. The Montreal studio actively collaborated with Kaos on Homefront.”

Kaos's closure isn't a completesurprise for its 70-odd staffers. In aninterview with Developback in January, a source within the studio said devs were concerned about losing their jobs or being moved to Canada once development onHomefront was complete. At the time, Kaos's general manager David Votypka confirmed he had been fielding these concerns, and explained THQ was interested in making greater use of its Montreal office, noting, “With the opening of the THQ Montreal studio the goal has always been to find a way to utilize that studio in future Kaos projects...Seeing as New York is not the most inexpensive location to develop games, utilising Montreal one way or another is understandable.”

THQ also confirmed the closure of another of its subsidiaries, Digital Warrington (Red Faction: Battlegrounds), formerly known as Juice Games (Juiced). Staffers at both Digital Warrington and Kaos studios have been invited by THQ to apply for open positions in its Montreal, Vancouver and Austin locations.

June 13, 2011

[Source:Gamasutra]