Developer Foundation 9 has closed its Austin, Texas-based handheld studio Fizz Factor, and merged the operations of its Kirkland, Washington-based Amaze and Griptonite studios.

The independent developer operates multiple studios, including Amaze, Backbone, Sumo Digital and Double Helix, the last of which has also seen cutbacks, according to VentureBeat.

"It’s important to F9 to remain a strong and profitable studio, so that we can continue to provide the best possible services to our publishing partners and employees,” the company said in a statement issued to VB. “As such, we continuously monitor our production capacity and capabilities to make sure it’s in tune with the market. From time to time we make decisions to grow or shrink capacity in relation to market conditions, and we do not make public comments on these decisions.

“We can confirm that we recently merged the operations of our two Kirkland studios, Amaze and Griptonite. Having separate console and handheld studios under the same roof simply didn’t make sense in light of the convergence in capabilities of modern game hardware. J.C. Connors, studio head of Griptonite, will lead the combined studio. As part of that restructuring, and our normal practice of monitoring business conditions, we made the decision to close our Austin, TX handheld studio, Fizz Factor.”



Across its studios, Foundation 9 has developed numerous titles including Konami’s Silent Hill: Homecoming and Sega’s The Golden Compass. At E3 the company showed off eleven games, including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines, EA’s GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra and Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are.