Epic Games has announced the official launch of Impossible Studios, a game development studio it claims is "comprised of highly skilled, senior-level game development talent." Based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Impossible joins the likes of its corporate headquarters in Cary, North Carolina; ChAIR Entertainment in Salt Lake City, Utah; People Can Fly in Warsaw, Poland; Epic Games Korea in Seoul, Korea; and Epic Games Japan in Yokohama, Japan.

According to this Joystiq report 38 Studios has laid off its entire staff across both its Providence, Rhode Island studio and its Bug Huge Games studio in Baltimore, Maryland. An internal memo obtained by news station WPRI reveals the details of the layoff and how employees received the news. The memo reads:

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS), in conjunction with Learning Port Strategies, is gearing up to roll out a new learning tool for students, one that will combine “serious game technology with training.”

Dubbed Learning in a Virtual Environment (L.i.V.E.), the program will consist, at first, of two components: a “repository” for virtual games created around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) called the Virtual High School, and a challenge for students to create a pitch for a STEM-based videogame, which is entitled The Contest.

Two additional aspects of the program are planned as well—Gamification Boot Camp, in which teachers are instructed on gaming vocabulary and technology and how to implement it alongside traditional teaching strategies, and the LPS Loft, billed as “a group of gaming professionals and tech-minded individuals who will join teachers in reviewing student story pitches and developing the first level of a game, based on the winning Contest pitches.”