Black Ops Declassified Developer Abandons Retail

[Karloff]

Black Ops Declassified Developer Abandons Retail

Nihilistic Software will close and reform as mobile game maker nStigate.

Nihilistic Software, makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified and Resistance: Burning Skies, will close over the next few months as part of a reorganization intended to create mobile game maker nStigate. Layoffs aren't part of the plan, but Nihilistic will "get leaner," according to the official announcement, "as some of our talent finds new homes."

Though Nihilistic didn't go into specifics, sinking retail figures were mentioned as part of the reasoning behind the switch. nStigate will focus on downloadable, online and mobile games, abandoning retail altogether. Nihilistic, founded by veterans of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, has been in operation for fourteen years.

"It's been a privilege and a joy to serve our players for the past years," said the company in its official announcement. "We love what we do, and we love it when you guys like it."

Vita's multiplayer shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120116-Vita-Black-Ops-Focuses-on-Multiplayer-Above-All-Else], the last title to be published by Nihilistic, is due for release on November 13th.

Source: Nihilistic [http://www.nihilistic.com/index.php/]


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[MikeWehner]

Yikes. This can't say good things about the forecast on how well Declassified will perform. I really do believe that there's room for FPS titles on mobile, but I find touchscreen shooters 100% unplayable. The Vita is perfect for it, but the cost of entry may be too steep to really let it thrive.

 

[Sylveria]

Not a very positive indicator of the quality of Declassified if they're already abandoning ship.

 

[Studsmack]

Hmm. I'm curious as to why Nihilistic is making this overly complicated transition. Why not just redirect their agenda towards games in the mobile space? Do they really need to change their name? I don't know of any bad reputation associated with the Nihilistic name. Burning Skies seemed to have done fair in its review scores, considering it's a shooter for the Vita.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Retail is hard on every one involved, its dog eat dog world.

 

[tangoprime]

"nStigate"? Really? That's all I really took from this article, as I don't really care about anything Call of Duty related, but seriously, are people still naming companies like this?