We're sure you've all heard of Nexon Vancouver (a.k.a. Humanature), the Canadian branch of Korean MapleStory creator, Nexon. Oh, you haven't. That's likely because it hadn't produced any games. And now it's been closed, as confirmed by Gamasutra.The studio had been working on a free-to-play MMO titled Sugar Rush (not to be confused with the BBC series) and was headed up by Relic Entertainment co-founder, Alex Garden. Upwards of 90 employees have reportedly been let go in the closure, which Nexon has attributed to "today's economic landscape and the need to secure Nexon's core business for the long term."
Nexon's Los Angeles operation will remain open and, according to the company, "will continue to work on our existing titles as well as upcoming titles for 2009." (Unlike the now-defunct Vancouver unit, the folks at Nexon L.A. aren't developing original content -- they perform localization of Nexon's Korean language titles for the US.) For those keeping tabs on the Great Games Industry Bloodletting of Ought-Nine, we're up to three studio closures (Black Box, Pandemic Brisbane, Humanature) and some 335 jobs lost -- not counting the ones EA and Microsoft won't disclose.
