THQ closes Homefront developer

THQ has confirmed that it is to close Homefront developer Kaos Studios, as well as its UK studio Digital Warrington.

In a statement, the publisher said that it was closing the two studios, three months after the release of Homefront, as part of a "strategic realignment" that will see work on the continuing franchise passed to THQ Montreal.

"THQ confirmed today that it has made a strategic realignment within its internal studio structure and is in the process of closing two locations: the company's UK studio and Kaos studio in New York," the statement reads. "Both studios' employees have been informed.

"THQ continues its strategy of aligning the best industry talent with the company's marquee franchises. The Montreal studio will take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise. The Montreal studio actively collaborated with Kaos on Homefront."

Despite being THQ's most pre-ordered title in history and selling a million units within ten days of release, Homefront was met with a lukewarm critical reception. The publisher's executive VP of core games Danny Bilson played down the game's middling review scores, saying: "Clearly the game is not a '71'. You can't apply math to art." You can, however, apply math to math: in May, THQ posted a $136 million loss for the preceding financial year.

The adoption of dedicated servers for the game's multiplayer mode led to severe connectivity problems, with THQ and Kaos forced to add more servers to keep up with "unprecedented demand" and issue a series of patches. At E3 last week, Bilson told Eurogamer that lessons learned from the first game's release would be borne in mind in development of the sequel.

"Everything we learned from [the original] you'll see executed in other games, including that franchise," he said. "It was a tremendous learning experience for us. We learned a lot about managing dedicated servers...The issues we had on Homefront we'll never have again."

THQ points out that it is actively hiring, not just in Montreal but Vancouver and Austin, Texas, and that affected employees of Kaos and Digital Warrington will be invited to apply for vacancies around the globe.

Source: VG247 / Eurogamer