Originally discovered by a tweet from Q-Games head Dylan Cuthbert, information regarding the closure has spread to other locations including GameSpot, but Australian website Tsumea confirmed the information today.
Krome Studios had recently released two major titles: the first episode in the downloadable action series Blade Kitten, published by Atari, and the liscensed videogame for The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole for Activision. Unfortunately, with Blade Kitten doing less-than-anticipated sales-wise and The Legend of the Guardians sales attached to poor movie sales, the company's latest two ventures could not help the firm.
Formed in 1999, Krome Studios has developed games for multiple consoles spanning a number of franchises large and small. It garnered attention with its Ty the Tasmanian Tiger franchise, and during the transition to the new generation, the company worked on the Legend of Spyro trilogy. This generation, the company worked on the Wii, PS2, and PSP versions of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed which did exceptionally well, but even after developing another Wii venture using the Star Wars franchise, it did not get selected for Force Unleashed 2. Furthermore, the company worked alongside Microsoft on Viva Pinata: Party Animals and the retro-game XBLA hub Game Room.
The company laid off upwards of a hundred staff earlier this summer after it closed its Adelaide studios and cut staff elsewhere, too. Unfortunately, the cuts did not seem to help, if the reports are true.
According to Tsumea, the company has laid off all staff, but starting next week, it will contract a number of laid-off staff to complete Krome's current projects, whatever is left following Blade Kitten and Legend of the Guardians.
The total layoff count could exceed 200 employees.
SOURCE: Tsumea
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