Sony have sadly confirmed the closure of Evolution Studios, who were mostly known for their work on the excellent Motorstorm franchise and Driveclub. This news actually comes less than an hour after we reported on an upcoming event in their game Driveclub, which will perhaps be the game’s final event now than Evolution is closing up shop for good.
Some of you might have read our ‘A Brief History of’ series, which will cover all of Sony’s first party studios. So far we’ve only covered Naughty Dog and Guerilla, but the plan is to cover each and every studio Sony has ever owned and that includes those that have been made redundant, which means we will be covering Evolution Studios in the future.
We’ve included Sony’s entire statement on the subject down below. In summary they were making some changes to the structure of their European studios and Evolution’s projects did not conform to their visions for the near to mid future. While the news must have come as a shock to the studio’s employees Sony will relocate as many as they can into other first party studio’s, failing that they’ll be happy to talk to other employers on the behalf of their now ex-employees. The full statement is just below.
Regular reviews take place throughout SCE Worldwide Studios, ensuring that the resources that we have in such a competitive landscape can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects.
As part of this process we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to the European studios structure.
As a result, it has been decided that Evolution Studio will close.
It is regrettable that this decision will lead to compulsory redundancies. We accept that this decision will mean that we risk losing high calibre staff but by focusing on other Studios that already have exciting new projects in development we believe we will be in a stronger position going forward and able to offer the best possible content of the highest quality for our consumers.
Where possible we will try to reallocate people onto other projects. If appropriate opportunities are not possible within the company, we will assist staff in any way we can, including speaking with local employers and with other development companies.
Evolution has been an important part of SCE Worldwide Studios for over 10 years – working on ground-breaking racing titles like WRC, Motorstorm and DRIVECLUB.
This decision should not take anything away from the great work that Evolution has produced.
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