Starhawk developer LightBox Interactive hit a major roadbump this week, with the company’s relationship with Sony coming to a close. The studio was then forced to lay off 24 employees.
There were 32 employees at LightBox, but the layoffs will bring that number down to a “core team” of eight, according to LightBox president Dylan Jobe.
Jobe announced the studio would be focusing on iOS development going forward, but would not elaborate on the game itself.
“I could, but I think that'd be inappropriate,” said Jobe in an email. “Right now I'm focusing on making sure the team members I'm laying-off are as prepared as possible to find good jobs. There will be a time for PR on our iOS game--but now is not that time.”
The 24 impacted employees, whose last day is today, have all been offered severance packages.
As Starhawk is an active multiplayer-focused game, players of Starhawk might be hoping LightBox would be contracted to continue support for it, but that’s not the case. Jobe has a solution for the nearterm, though.
“There are some updates that I still want to deploy for our fans around the world so I'll just be ‘eating’ that cost,” he said.