Split/Second dev officially closes doors
Brighton's Black Rock no more.
Split/Second developer Black Rock officially closes its doors today.
Confirmation comes from Nick Baynes, the former director of the Disney-owned studio.
"@blackrockster officially closes its doors today," he wrote on Twitter.
"Thoughts go out to all facing their last day. A bright future awaits all though I'm sure!"
In July Eurogamer broke the news of Disney's intention to shutter Black Rock.
Disney blamed the decision on the cancellation of Black Rock's then in-development secret project, which Eurogamer subsequently discovered was a free-to-play DOTA-style game provisionally titled Champions Alliance.
Aborted projects included a sequel to 2008 quad-bike racer Pure and a follow-up to last year's Split/Second.
One anonymous source told Eurogamer that Disney handled Black Rock clumsily, outsourcing games to other companies that the Brighton studio was more than capable of producing.
The source also bemoaned the lack of advertising for recommended racing games Pure and Split/Second.
Nevertheless, from the ashes of Black Rock Studio have arisen new studios: Roundcube Entertainment, lead by Split/Second director Nick Baynes; ShortRound Games, formed by a quartet of previous Black Rock department directors; and BossAlien, fronted by Pure director Jason Avent.