Report: Voluntary Layoffs Expected at Disney's Black Rock

According to a source close to Split/Second and Pure developer Black Rock Studios, 100 staff members are to be laid off. Speaking to Eurogamer, a trusted source says that roughly 100 Black rock employees will face a "voluntary" layoff, leaving about 40 to continue working on current projects. The wholly owned Disney studio has been unable to successfully pitch new project ideas to its parent company, according to the source:

"It seems Disney have been unable to provide us with a project to work on, and our concept pitches clearly haven't gone down well (despite there being many of them)," the inside source said. "The inactive portion of the studio has been expecting redundancies for months, so this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. It's sad that it's come to this of course, but for many people they'll be quite happy to take the money and go, as they've been sitting around doing nothing for months."

The source goes on to say that what remains of the team is working on a "promising" but "new and risky" title. Sequels to racers Pure and Split/Second are not in the works, according to the source.

Source: GI.biz