NBA Ballers: Chosen One lead designer John Vignocchi recently gave his two weeks notice at Midway Chicago to help start a new venture capital backed studio in the city.
The new studio, located on the north side of Chicago, will concentrate on creating games for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Vignocchi leaves Midway after working on five games with the company over the past 8 and a half years. His departure is just the latest in a stream of lay-offs and departures in the financial strapped company.
In an email obtained by Kotaku last night, Matt Booty, interim CEO and president of Midway, told employees that the company laid off 90 Austin workers because the company felt that their open world game Career Criminal was likely not going to be successful, so they killed the project.
The layoffs hit less than a week after Midway confirmed to Kotaku that a trio of high-level folks had left Midway’s Chicago studio. Among those to leave were Mike Bilder, head of the studio, the internal developer responsible for Stranglehold, Mortal Kombat and Blitz: The League. Other confirmed departures include Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing, and Reilly Brennan, director of media relations. Two other high level staffers were rumoured to have quit, including Vignocchi.
NBA Ballers: Chosen One comes out next week and we got a peek at a little bit of it at last night’s Midway Gamer’s Day. NBA Ballers lets you create your own player and use them to go up against the big boys or you can use any of the eighty playable NBA stars to make your way through the game.
NBA Ballers: Chosen One just got a heaping helping of street cred, as Midway announces prominent roles in the game for super producer Just Blaze and Public Enemy front man and co-founder Chuck D. Chuck (can I call him Chuck?) will star as the announcer and studio-host for the titular Chosen One tournament, as well as providing the play-by-play commentary during games. Meanwhile Blaze, who has produced over 20 top 10 albums from the likes of Usher, Kanye West, and Jay-Z, will be producing the entire score for the game, which promises to interact with the gameplay rather than simply play in the background. Maybe the inclusion of Chuck D and Blaze will help me stave off all of those Last Dragon scenes that pop into my head every time I read NBA Ballers: Chosen One. Probably not.
If you thought NBA Ballers was a snicker-worthy title, Midway has a real treat for you next year. They’ve just announced the latest installment of the basketball lifestyle series, entitled NBA Ballers: Chosen One, heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this Spring. “NBA Ballers: Chosen One will allow players to live the life of an NBA superstar,” said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. “Featuring new competitive combo and super-move systems, the NBA Ballers Franchise returns with the amazing realistic graphics for which the franchise is known as players take part in the ultimate challenge to become the next ‘Chosen One.”
For me the title brings to mind at best The Matrix Trilogy, and at worst Berry Gordy’s 1985 martial arts classic, The Last Dragon. If you don’t achieve ‘The Glow’ when you reach Chosen One status, the game ain’t worth buying. Sho’nuff! More »
