We're exactly one week away from the Valentine's Day release of Eat Sleep Play's revamped take on Twisted Metal, the first entry in the car combat series to hit the PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, it's not all good news for the Utah-based developer. A report in The Salt Lake City Tribune (via Joystiq) confirms that the studio has been hit with layoffs and, even more troublingly, that Jaffe may soon be leaving as well.
Eat Sleep Play co-founder and Twisted Metal co-creator told the Tribune that he is expecting Jaffe to leave to pursue casual game development. "He's excited to go into the casual space as well," Campbell said. "He's got some projects that he's excited about. So we're kind of going down two separate paths." The layoffs and Jaffe departure also signal a change for Eat Sleep Play, which will refocus its work on mobile games.
"It’s a platform that is in our pockets almost 24/7. It’s kind of the size and types of games we’re playing," Campbell said. "You can certainly reach a lot more people. That’s pretty exciting for us."
All of this comes in the wake of eight employees being laid off last week, bringing the studio's total worker count down to 26. There's no word from Eat Sleep Play yet on what's next after Twisted Metal beyond the nebulous "mobile games" refocusing, but Jaffe offered a comment of his own on Twitter.
He neither confirms nor denies plans to move on from Eat Sleep Play after Twisted Metal's release, commenting instead of reports that he's making a move toward the casual. "The rumors of me making casual games post TM- as many of you define them- are highly exaggerated," he tweeted late last night.
"As many of you define them." What would you say he means by that? Don't forget that Jaffe made the PSN game Calling All Cars and the highly underrated PlayStation 2-era future city racer Kinetica. Not exactly the definition of "casual" games, but they're certainly more straightforward and easy to grasp for gaming neophytes than games like Twisted Metal and God of War.
Source: Joystiq
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mike5
Indeed a great game
www.gamespot.com
A-Bittersweet-Life
I think this wouldn't have happened had they not pushed for delay, I think they were pushing the budget they had from the publisher. David Jaffe has always touted this game as a double A budget type of game, but the development time did not reflect that.
Wozman23
Granted the game is complete, but it seems a bit odd to hit a company with substantial layoffs right before they have a game release. I would think you would wait to see how successful (or unsuccessful) the release is. Makes me think there must be a bit more to this story.
JustTheBeginning
Well Jaffe confirmed it on twitter, said he is making a new studio in San Diego. Said he wants to make it where he lives (apparently) and does like like working long distance with Eat sleep play (in Utah) when 300mi away. Now I love Jaffe but it really sounds like this guy has serious commitment issues, he co-created ESP and decides to bail after only a single game! He helped build Santa Monica and bailed after one game. He made 1 game and 1 small PSN game with Incognito, then bails! Why did he make Eat Sleep Play in utah if he did not want to be in Utah! Better yet, why not just move the company! This guy is like bi-polar or something, not only a week ago on twitter he was talking about how twisted metal is his baby and he wants it to succeed for a twisted metal 2, then all of a sudden he decides to leave before it even release!
AmericanKing01
Jaffe won't stay quiet for long and that is a good thing. I hope that Twisted Metal can continue after the newest instalment, it is the Playstations longest running franchaise. Good luck to David in what ever he does next.
Deadone ShowHide(1 Reply)
Guess that's what happens when you don't make your game cross platform.
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