Archer Maclean resigns

Archer Maclean has resigned as Creative Director at the Awesome Studios division of Ignition Entertainment with immediate effect, the British company announced today.

Ignition was quick to stress that it retains all intellectual property rights to past and future Awesome Studios titles and that projects in development will not be affected.

One source close to the developer told us that he expected Ignition's work to withstand the loss of the company's most visible asset - a regular interviewee in the pages of games magazines and online - as Maclean was "more of a figurehead".

Specifically, work on Mercury 2 - the follow-up to what is now Archer Maclean's last Awesome Studios project, Mercury - is said to be unaffected.

"Whilst Archer was the spokesperson for Awesome Studios, there's a 28-strong team in currently in place and Ignition Entertainment will continue to offer the development outfit creative and commercial support for its forthcoming titles," managing director Vijay Chadha said in a statement.

"We're confident that the Awesome Studios team will continue to produce games which will excite, challenge and delight next-generation videogames players."

"In addition, we look forward to unveiling the new management team at Awesome Studios. We thank Archer Maclean for his role in shaping Ignition Entertainment into a company primed to become one of the UK's leading interactive entertainment publisher, and wish him every success with his future projects."

Archer Maclean's Mercury is due out in Europe on PSP on September 1st, and has received solid reviews in the USA where it is already available.