Black Rock sale attempted, no buyer found

By Fred Dutton Published 6 May, 2011

No interest in Split/Second dev.

Disney Interactive Studios attempted to sell off half of Split/Second developer Black Rock late last year but couldn't find a buyer, according to an inside source.

The same source who flagged up planned redundancies at the Brighton-based studio earlier this week told us that a new management team at Disney put a portion of the studio on the market seven months ago.

"When the new management came in, they tried to sell half the studio and keep half, and they apparently had one buyer interested, but that fell through recently, leading to the situation we're in now."

A separate source at the studio - which also counts Pure and MotoGP on its résumé - has since confirmed the attempted sale to Eurogamer.

Around 100 jobs were thought to have been axed yesterday at Black Rock after development of a Split/Second sequel was canned and no replacement project settled upon.

40 staff apparently remain at the studio and are working on a "promising" but "risky" new title.

Split/Second launched on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last May clocking an impressive 8/10 at the hands of Eurogamer's Oli Welsh.

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 1 year ago

    Surely Activision wouldn't mind another CoD on the go?

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #2 1 year ago

    CoD racer? im sure theyd buy that. Flogging the horse till its dead and all that.
    Edited by roquey at 06/05/11 @ 17:22

  • misterg1970 #3 1 year ago

    There aren't going to be any arcade racer developers left soon what with Bizarre and this lot going under. If Blur and Split Second hadn't been released practically the same week maybe both would have sold enough to be profitable and we could looking forward to sequels from developers that had great track records (pardon the pun!)

  • God_Octo #4 1 year ago

    If I worked at any of Disney's studios, I'd be looking for another job on the sly. It doesn't seem likely that Disney are gonna maintain their position within the games market, and shedding jobs just seems to be the first sign of this. Its a real pity, as some really good work was coming out of their studios. I'm still really peeved that they cancelled Armada of the Damned for Lego PoTC. Good luck everyone!

  • dsmx #5 1 year ago

    Another question is they made a PC version of split second why isn't it on steam?

  • HermitArcader #6 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Syrette #7 1 year ago

    @roquey

    Call of Duty Kart.

    It's only a matter of time.

  • aidey6 #8 1 year ago

    Sad to hear this, I bought this on PS3 and thought it was very good, shame it didn't sell enough to cause Black Rock to lose staff

  • menage #9 1 year ago

    Disney really isn't about doing cool or memorable stuff anymore. They just sell out everything they have to make the biggest buck. And then they milk it dry.

    The company is one of the main examples of how to run thing into the ground.

  • twoism #10 1 year ago

    This is awful, they showed so much promise with Pure and Split/Second, and was only rivalled by Criterion Games as far as great arcade racers go. Hope the remaining staff manage to hang in there, best of luck to them all.

  • gjgjg #11 1 year ago

    If we all pitch in a tenner, can we buy it? ...seriously

  • enfilade #12 1 year ago

    Now, I agree about all the comments praising Split/Second, don't get me wrong, but for me Blackrock Studios will always be the team that made Pure, first and foremost. That game was seriously the most fun I've had with a racer since I picked up my first ever Mario Kart (Double Dash, incidentally.)

    More worrying than Acti and Disney's willingness to jettison Bizarre and Blackrock is the apparent lack of any willing buyers out there, though. Is the profitability of video games in so much danger that blatantly talented design studios, with already-assembled teams and proven tack-records cannot find a new home? This just seems crazy to me, and it's profoundly disappointing.

  • SavageEvil #13 1 year ago

    Buying an established studio is a serious undertaking as you assume all their debts as well as their assets. Not many want to deal with that sort of headache which is why they don't buy up dev houses that are for sale. If they are in the black and not in the red, and have some good IP's then it's anyone's guess but other than that it's usually the grave for most chopping block dev houses. Sad thing these days yes it is.

  • Costiagn #14 1 year ago

    What a shame, Split Second was excellent.

  • DiamondIce #15 1 year ago

    This is a real shame. Pure and S/S are two of the most fun games I have played in years.

    Blackrock have a real talent of capturing fun in gaming.

  • PierrePressure #16 1 year ago

    Pure was awesome, reminded me of Sled Storm. Sad to hear this news. Why does it seem most British devs are feeling the brunt of these cutbacks the most?

  • LOLLERS #17 1 year ago

    @Raining_Upwards - No, 'people' want to publish games that stand at least some chance of making money and don't have ridiculous development costs...

  • ubergine #18 1 year ago

    Both Pure and Split Second were solid games that deserved to be perfected in sequels, like Burnout was.

    I'd have them making a HD rip-off of Excite Truck if I owned them.

  • green_nifta #19 1 year ago

    Britain just can't compete globally whilst other countries offer tax breaks to make development so much cheaper. Why would a publisher sign a deal with a british developer when they could get it developed in Canada for a third less?

  • busboy33 #20 1 year ago

    Shame -- Split/Second was a damn fun game. Clearly some talent went into it.

    I'm truly surprised that neither MS or Sony wanted to put a solid 1st team developer on their books (especially MS).

  • Marshall2008 #21 1 year ago

    It's a shame that Blackrock (formerly climax) stopped making the motogp games on the 360 as I have yet to find a bike racer that comes close.

  • shinki #22 1 year ago

    Black Rock is owned by Disney so any theoretical "debt" is already a part of Disney's finances and wouldn't be a part of any sale. Most companies, however, would prefer to simply hoover up talent that gets lost rather then shell out a lot of money for the whole team.

  • SomaticSense #23 1 year ago

    So a dev house who have developed nothing but top quality and highly polished games get's no interest from anyone?

    What the hell is wrong with the game industry right now?

  • Collymilad #24 1 year ago

    Bad news, although I thought Pure and S/S were not that great to be honest (especially SS)

    To compare them to Criterion is laughable tbh.

  • SomaticSense #25 1 year ago

    They were Criterion!