Infinity Blade: Dungeons Goes "On Hold" As Epic Shutters Impossible Studios

Back in August, Epic announced that it was picking up some chunk of the team formerly known as Big Huge Games--one of the studios impacted by the implosion of the 38 Studios--and giving them Infinity Blade: Dungeons, the Diablo-like action-RPG set in the same universe as Chair Entertainment's Punch-Out!! with swords franchise for iOS. The team was branded Impossible Studios.

About three days ago, I started wondering what the heck was going on with Infinity Blade: Dungeons, since it looked pretty interesting when I saw it back around E3 last year. Today we got our answer.

In a message posted to Epic's official company blog, Epic founder Tim Sweeney gets right to the point. Epic is closing Impossible Studios, with "ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic" given as the reason for the closure. Epic is, however, allowing the team at Impossible to keep its name and logo, giving them the opportunity to reform under that name, if desired.

As a result of all this, Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now officially on hold.

I'm probably supposed to provide some sort of meaningful commentary here, but I don't really know what to think. I'm just sort of shocked. That's nuts.

Never even heard of it.

That's dumb, at least they get to keep their sweet logo.

That's really weird. What could they have done to get "put on hold"?

aaaghhh

Crazy stuff, i dont even know what too think

@Redsox44 said:

That's dumb, at least they get to keep their sweet logo.

It is a pretty schweet logo to be fair.

EDIT: There is something that smells off about this news though.

Jay Z doesn't approve.

@KillerPidgeon said:

It is a pretty schweet logo to be fair.

EDIT: There is something that smells off about this news though.

Maybe Jeff is in his underwear again....

For all their effort, they couldn't make the Impossible possible.

seems like the big huge games guys can't get a decent break

That must really suck for all those people forced to endure two studio closings in less than a year. I bet some are wondering if the gaming industry is even for them anymore. Could lose some good talent. Wouldn't blame them a bit though. What a shame.

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

This is just...weird.

Maybe there's some truth to all that talk about Epic getting out of making games after all...

Why would Epic do this? That can't feel good for the people at Impossible Studios. I liked KOA: Reckoning. Hope they get to keep making games. So much studio closure lately. It's a bummer.

@jakob187 said:

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

This is just...weird.

or maybe the guys are the problem, seeing how they went through 2 closures already....

The end of this generation is fucked

@ripelivejam said:

seems like the big huge games guys can't get a decent break

Or the more talented big huge people took off to more stable employment before 38 studios had imploded, and the place is less of an asset than anticipated. Although that is the really negative interpretation, and it could just be that the integration side of it is not working due to time zones, etc.

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Those poor people. Laid off twice in less than a year.

Ouch... Right in the heart. I hate it when a studio closes. Call me when there's actually something good for once.

@Vinny_Says said:

@jakob187 said:

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

This is just...weird.

or maybe the guys are the problem, seeing how they went through 2 closures already....

Yes, I'm sure the sub-studio who was bought specifically to turn the game they were making into a side-story for the incomplete MMO, and ended up being the only part of the company to put out anything with the 38 Studios name on it, were the problem there. Great logic.

@SomeDeliCook said:

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

that's a bummer- but epic is providing severance, and they did give them a parachute from 38 studios (even if it was ultimately fleeting). hopefully they have some leadership to reform under.

What the hell!?!?! :((

@Jeff said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

@Jeff said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

I don't really understand what the impetus is for Epic to do this, aside from the key people wanting to cash out and retire. They make more money on the engine obviously, but it's not like their games weren't selling, Bulletstorm excepted. There's probably no good answer for this, but why throw everything out the window to focus the company on one part of the product when it doesn't seem like the engine is going to be improved any by the greater focus?

@shatteringlast said:

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

I'm guessing it's dead, considering UT3 did not do so well for them. (Though let's be honest, it was a pretty mediocre UT.)

Oh man, this is tragic....

@Jeff said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

That's insane. As unlikely as it is I hope we find out the impetus behind this decision, bankable developers, bankable engine, bankable franchise, bankable genre then shut down in a snap? What was going on back there?

:( I really enjoyed Infinity Blade, was reasonably excited for dungeons too, they did cool stuff for a phone game.

What the hell is going on with Epic?

At least the studio lived up to it's name.

This lends credence to the theory of Epic getting out of games.

Just please let Chair make another Shadow Complex, and then you can leave games, okay? Please?

This makes the initial studio forming seem like a really short-sighted, poorly thought out PR stunt.

Good points on UT3... however I'll always have a spot in my heart for UT 2004.

wtf epic

Jeff writing a article, THERE IS A GOD. No but very cool of epic for pretty much giving these people a job and a paid time to look for one

That's. Weird. Still, I think Infinite Blade would have been a great title for the Playstation Move. Maybe this will somehow break them from the iOS leash?

@shatteringlast said:

Good points on UT3... however I'll always have a spot in my heart for UT 2004.

As you should, because UT2k4 is god tier.

Hov's crackin' that can open again.

Man, WTF?

Apparently the game was delayed into 2013, so it was going to be a 2012 release. Doesn't seem like a lot of time for a studio to build and release a game. I'm guessing they were missing milestones, or at least quality was sub par.. However, it still seems like an unrealistsically short dev cycle.

How long till the Kickstarter gets posted...

Yeah it really feels like Epic is getting out of game development.

Wow, that doesn't bode well for either Epic or Impossible.

Well I didn't see that coming.

Not surprised if I think about it.

KoA:Reckoning wasn't all that hot and had numerous core design flaws, it tried to do some grand things, but outside of the fresh and solid melee combat in an action RPG it really had nothing else to offer that wasn't done several times better in other games.

Now combine that with the fact that it's only a part of that team, a team that fractured, it's quite possible that they simply could not pull off what Epic demanded from them, and there really can be a dozen and one reasons for that, unrealistic expectations morale, unfamiliar work conditions, different corporate culture, bad team combo, etc, etc ...

Epic saying "ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic" is the corporate equivalent of saying "it's not you it's me" in a relationship, you don't want to hurt the other party's feelings (in this case you don't want to say bad things about them as they are let go, to hurt their chances of finding further employment as little as possible)

Kinda cynical way to look at it, but it's not surprising in the least, even if it is a bummer.

That is pretty tragic. At least those dudes got payed an extra half year and moreso than they would have otherwise (assuming they couldn't find jobs elsewhere), but this is a crying shame. Not exactly good PR for Epic either to shut down the studio that they "saved".

At least they're allowed to continue their work on their own if they so choose to, but I can't imagine they can scrounge up funding for that.

So it's an iOS loot rpg? I can see why Epic wanted to shit can it...