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Joystiq

Warner Bros. lays off staff from Monolith, Snowblind, Surreal

by Justin McElroy on Jan 12th 2010 2:05PM

Apparently, Warner Bros. didn't get the memo that layoffs are so 2009. The publisher has released an unspecified number of staffers from Seattle developers Monolith Productions, Snowblind Studios and Surreal Software, perhaps best known for the FEAR series, Death Tank and The Suffering, respectively.

The publisher told Gamasutra, "we had a few too many resources in certain functions and some positions were eliminated in this process." Seems logical enough, but that doesn't make it any less of a bitter pill for those affected. Here's hoping everyone lands on their feet.

Source

Tags: layoffs, monolith-productions, snowblind-studios, surreal-software, this-is-vegas, warner-bros, wbie

Reader Comments (29)

Monolith? I sure wish they someday created a remake of BLOOD. Probably just a pipe of dream of mine. Same way I wish bungie would create a new MYTH game.

I was hoping for another SHOGO. I loved that FPS.

Shogo was awesome. Not enough good non-sim giant robot games that don't make you keep track of everything. Sometimes ya just wanna march around in a 50 foot mech destroying the robots and buildings around you.

That's a shame. I really liked F.E.A.R. The sequel, not as much, but I though Monolith was a pretty impressive studio.

agreed. you don't have too many studios developing multiple franchises of horror-themed titles. as a fan of horror in video games, and a big fan of the first fear and first condmned, i'm sorry to hear that monolith is losing staff.

Has Monolith announced any new projects? It's been a while since FEAR 2, and I know I was disappointed they weren't working on TRON Legacy (TRON 2.0 was brilliant).

Hope everyone who got the hammer can find new work.

A couple years back they were working on a film related game. I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was Logan's Run. I haven't checked into it recently but it looks like the movie remake is finally coming out in 2012 so maybe they are continuing to work on the game.

funny that WB owns the studios that make some of the most traumatic video games to the psyche

I don't get it, why is that funny? They're an entertainment company, not a psychiatrist union

because its the wb not news corp or universal inc

still not funny

Good luck to those laid off.

I enjoyed FEAR and am currently finishing up FEAR2. The sequel isn't as good, but still has some great spots. The school portion scared the hell out of me. : )

I love what happened with the projectors.

I hope that this is not the end of Monolith and merely a small staff reduction (although any staff reduction is, of course, painful). 'Lith is probably my favorite studio and I've been excited to see what their upcoming "first-person action game" will be, a project for which they were (ironically) hiring back in the summer.

Monolith's website is still closed for "remodeling." Hmm.

Well, that bodes.

Yeah it does, but then again, it's been like that for a while now.

I fear that 2010 is going to continue feeling like 2009 in the job sector. (Oh....I just caught the pun in there. Oops.)

Condemned was pretty "shit in your pants" scary. F.E.A.R.? Not so much.

FEAR wasn't scary, but it was a damn good corridor shooter.

correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Nintendo own a large portion of Monolith?

You're thinking of the Japanese company "Monolith Soft", whom are best known for the Xenosaga series.

@ D-5

ohhhhh ok. i didn't know that there were 2 different Monolith's. my bad.

Really? Snowblind is best known for Death Tank? I could have sworn Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was fairly popular once upon a time.

Agreed, seriously Death Tank? cmon use Wikipedia, folks, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance pretty much started the top-down action/RPG revival that Interplay, High Voltage, Raven and various other parts of Activision all joined in on.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2/XBX/GCN) from Snowblind led to:

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2
Hunter The Reckoning, Hunter the Reckoning:Wayward
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Chapions of Norrath & Champions: Return to Arms
Justice League Heroes
X-Men Legends 1 & 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 &2

Uneven, maybe, decent for a genre, not a bad lineage.

We need another Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance .. more Snowblind please...

The Suffering was a pretty cool game. Some good times with stuff jumping out from the dark at you and good psycological story.

Remember, videogames are made by resources.

This should ease the blunt of a GTFO box sitting on your desk with your bobble heads packed in a not-so-delicate way/

I hope the Monolith people come out well. I've loved all the F.E.A.R games.

Good. F.E.A.R. sucked and was a waste of a perfectly good gift card and $25, and Condemned 2 was awful. What happened to the story? It disappeared like Perfect Dark Zero's story.

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Warner Bros. lays off staff from Monolith, Snowblind, Surreal

Reader Comments (29)

Posted: Jan 12th 2010 2:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 12th 2010 3:35PM StormX said

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Posted: Jan 12th 2010 2:15PM a dark day said

Posted: Jan 12th 2010 2:24PM TheDarkWayne said

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