RSS Feeds
industry news
Take-Two Considering Venom Studios Close
Posted by Leigh Alexander at 6:20 AM on July 4, 2008
Following CVG's report that Take-Two might close the doors on Venom Studios, its Newcastle, UK-based developer of Don King's Prizefighter and Prey, Take-Two has said in a statement that it is indeed considering layoffs, though no final decisions have been made yet.
"We are assessing the role of Venom Games in Take-Two's overall global studio system and are in a consultation with the employees of Venom in relation to possible redundancies at the studio," the company said. "No final decision will be made until after the consultation with employees", it added.
Venom was founded in 2003 and was acquired by Take-Two in 2004 for $US 1.3 million.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Tetelestia
Posted 7:14 AM 4/7/08
If they are considering it geographically close to Take Two, it either is or isn't.
Tetelestia
Sinfwho
Posted 7:04 AM 4/7/08
Hmm... So Take Two to say take care to Venom?
I guess that's all Don King's fault.
Sinfwho
HaydenTenno
Posted 7:02 AM 4/7/08
@Jayl3w: I thought it was a lot better than Quake 4 and Doom 3 - both games that are similar and use the same engine. Prey had a much more interesting story and brought in some emotional segments that worked really well, which I appreciated. Not one of the best games ever, but still a very good game, imo.
HaydenTenno
ExistentialEgg
Posted 6:45 AM 4/7/08
awww... I'm playing through Prey right now, it's a clever game. I really like all the gravity puzzles. It's a shame it just kind of slipped off the radar and didn't make more of a splash for the developers.
ExistentialEgg
dynendal
Posted 6:38 AM 4/7/08
I think most of Prey's elements would've worked better in the new Turok (as good as it is already). I didn't like the Doom engine implementation.
dynendal
RET_Ghost
Posted 6:25 AM 4/7/08
I can't look at Prey the same ever again after I took a class on Emotioneering written by the David Freeman.
RET_Ghost
Jayl3w
Posted 6:24 AM 4/7/08
@HaydenTenno: I didn't like Prey, for some reason it just seemed a little... lame. Thats just my opinion on it though, my friend loved it.
It sucks to hear about any layoffs, hopefully it doesn't happen and, if it does, the unlucky ones will have backup jobs.
Jayl3w
HaydenTenno
Posted 6:23 AM 4/7/08
Neat! They did a good job on the Prey 360 port.
HaydenTenno
Amazon_Chris
Posted 7:56 AM 4/7/08
Man. I hope they don't close them down. I loved PREY.
Amazon_Chris
nflsonic
Posted 8:44 AM 4/7/08
Well, what will happen to PREY 2 then? I too loved PREY and was anxious to hear they were making a sequel to it.
Hopefully this wasn't the fault of that Don King game...oh wait, it probably was.
nflsonic
Ping5000
Posted 8:22 AM 4/7/08
Venom should hire Don King to speak on their behalf.
Ping5000
TheGuilty1
Posted 8:18 AM 4/7/08
That's too bad. I'm playing through Prey right now and so far it seems pretty good.
TheGuilty1
ClaussenJuice
Posted 9:04 AM 4/7/08
What was Venom's role with the game Prey? I ask because I know that Human Head Studios developed the game and was produced by 3D Realms.
ClaussenJuice
Shabat0ge
Posted 9:47 AM 4/7/08
I thought Prey was a pretty good game. Short and sweet, don't even remember if it had MP or not. Either way, I didn't play it. But I did like scripted sequences, felt film-like. dig that sort of thing
Shabat0ge
HaydenTenno
Posted 10:14 AM 4/7/08
@ClaussenJuice: They just did the port job, so a sequel is still very likely to be on its way.
HaydenTenno
kiigan
Posted 6:50 PM 4/7/08
That'd be a shame - some talented folk at Venom, and they did a decent port of Prey.
kiigan
d_unique
Posted 7:13 PM 4/7/08
If take-two acquired Venom games in 2004 what was the arse.f**king point in it all!? "Here, we'll give money and tell you what to develop, then if its sucks balls we'll close the studio"
d_unique
Reetesh
Posted 9:42 PM 4/7/08
Dissolving the Studio and making the good guys from there to different games, might be a good Idea
Reetesh
greger
Posted 3:32 AM 5/7/08
NOOOO!! Never heard of them, but I like the logo :P
greger