Sony closes WipEout developer Studio Liverpool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAF8Jod-bP4
Nostalgia corner: WipeEout running on an original PlayStation. SCE has just closed its developer, Studio Liverpool.

We don’t normally post stories about games studio closures – there are just too many for us to cover every single one – but the news that Sony Computer Entertainment is to close Studio Liverpool gave us a real thrill of nostalgia.

SCE Studio Liverpool, in its previous incarnation as Psygnosis, produced some of the iconic games of the 80s and early 90s, including the WipEout and Colony Wars series, and the crushingly difficult Shadow of the Beast.

Plus, it published Lemmings.

The closure was first reported in staff tweets yesterday, and confirmed on the WipEout 2048 Facebook page. You can read the official statement from Sony in Eurogamer’s report on the closure.

SCE isn’t the only game developer to have laid off staff in the past 48 hours, but the closure of Studio Liverpool is the only one to affect artists with such a long, unbroken job history.

As Double Negative co-founder and former Psygnosis employee Paul Franklin points out on CGTalk, Studio Liverpool included staff who worked at Psygnosis precursor Imagine Software.