Ignition L.A. studio moving to Austin

Ignition Entertainment's Los Angeles branch is moving to Austin, Texas, reports IGN. "All business will be continuing as usual," a company representative told the site -- which, for Ignition, means typically unusual business.

While no official reason was given for the closure of the Glendale, Calif. publishing offices, a fresh start in Austin is an unsurprising choice given the city's rich history of game development and the state's business incentives. Maybe the move is simply a matter of consolidating Ignition's two U.S. studios, L.A. and Gainesville (Fla.), and having them meet halfway. The move from L.A. is said to have no effect on the company's current staff or projects, according to IGN, while Ignition still won't confirm exactly what is going on in Florida.

A month ago, the Florida branch was reported to be closed and staff rumored to be forced out to Texas (or to find a new job). The studio's sci-fi FPS Reich was assumed to have suffered the same uncertain fate as Ignition's WarDevil game, which was left in limbo following the closure of the Ignition's London-area development studio in late September. Of course, WarDevil has since been resurrected as "Project Kane" and is supposedly in the hands of a "core team" and on track for a Q4 2011 release.

See? We told you: unusual business.

[Image sources: UTV Ignition; 25or6to4 (Wikipedia)]

Reader Comments (16)

Between Bioware, EA, Armature Studios, Retro Studios, Warren Specter, Richard Garriott and Blizzard, my town is getting pretty crowded. I wonder if this means I'll be bumping into Shane Bettenhausen downtown.

@Architecture

Is that Irvine you're referring to?

Also t'would be badass to bump into Bettenhausen.

@Architecture
Don't forget Arkane Studios!
I recently moved to Austin myself for a gaming job, so I'm always happy to hear news like this!

mmm...k

Austin is getting so much of LA's business. I'm in the digital advertising agency and several big companies just moved from Hollywood to Austin. As a resident of CA, I'm really worried of the upcoming depression this state will soon go through - we're the worst-run big-government state in the Union. It's like the politicians here think we have endless amounts of money and want to tax us, and they hate business (the ones who create jobs). /political rant over

@Mode7James A lot of other states, like Texas give away everything for free to businesses. My star, Georgia, let's any business do whatever they want and it sucks.

@Jack Kevorkian In what way is that bad Jack? Businesses aren't above the law, but they are Americans, just like you and me. If taxes get too high, I'll move to a state with little to no taxes no matter how awesome the weather is here. Businesses are no different - make life unbearable for them, they'll take their business, and jobs, to another, more competitive state like Georgia or Texas.

@Jack Kevorkian

Georgia is highly regulated. There's a reason Georgia has led the nation in bankruptcies for the past 6 years running.

@Mode7James

I've heard Ubisoft claim that it's half the price to operate a studio in Montreal as an equivalent size studio in Los Angeles.

The situation in Edmonton and Vancouver seems favourable as well.

If you look at last generation, how many successful games were made in Canada, vs this generation, it's an almost unbelievable jump. Half the games I've bought in the last 5 years or so are Canadian, and the best ones to boot. Whereas before that I'd never bought a game made in Canada, other than the BF2 special forces expansion pack.

No, NOT unusual. Not unusual that any smart business, if able, will take themselves out of this crazy state whose continued increased taxing of businesses is driving so many of them to leave to NV, TX, UT, etc. who have a low tax burden on businesses and can allow them to expand.

Until CA figures out how to address its bloated government, it's 'nanny-state' welfare policies, and out of control spending, it's anti-business methods of outrageously taxing both small and large companies will drive businesses out of this state like Intel, McAfee, Toyota, Hilton, IBM, Denny's and hundreds of others.

I've lived in CA all my life and it's been great having so many gaming companies here in the past. But look at the trends, they are all getting out if they can.

http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/2010/07/calif-business-exodus-explodes-in-1st_15.html

Smart move in my opinion, California just becomes more and more anti-business.

Not to mention... but - Austin > LA

@xXHexagonXx Austin is summer is about 110 degrees. And you have to live in Texas, which is easily the shit testiest state in the Union behind Mississippi.

Well aren't you just full of ignorant, inflammatory statements? You know what the difference between SoCal and Texas is? about 20 degrees in the dead of summer.

@Architecture

War...war never changes.

@Architecture

And considering the dearth of traffic, you can get to the beach faster from Austin than LA. And Texas has better beaches.

@LaughingTarget

Better beaches than California? Hahahah, sure. Nobody beats Pacific Ocean beaches. Too many people on them, of course, but that's not a problem with the beach itself.

Project Kane (WarDevil)

Ignition L.A. studio moving to Austin

Reader Comments (16)

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:26AM Architecture said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 1:48PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 2:37PM AsherR said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:27AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:34AM Mode7James said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:48AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 12:14PM Mode7James said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 1:16PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 4:22PM Invigilator said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:44AM OpeningNumber said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 11:55AM xXHexagonXx said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 12:02PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 12:39PM Architecture said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 1:02PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 1:18PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2010 4:24PM Invigilator said

Project Kane (WarDevil) Info

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