Split/Second dev officially closes doors

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 2 September, 2011

Brighton's Black Rock no more.

Split/Second developer Black Rock officially closes its doors today.

Confirmation comes from Nick Baynes, the former director of the Disney-owned studio.

"@blackrockster officially closes its doors today," he wrote on Twitter.

"Thoughts go out to all facing their last day. A bright future awaits all though I'm sure!"

In July Eurogamer broke the news of Disney's intention to shutter Black Rock.

Disney blamed the decision on the cancellation of Black Rock's then in-development secret project, which Eurogamer subsequently discovered was a free-to-play DOTA-style game provisionally titled Champions Alliance.

Aborted projects included a sequel to 2008 quad-bike racer Pure and a follow-up to last year's Split/Second.

One anonymous source told Eurogamer that Disney handled Black Rock clumsily, outsourcing games to other companies that the Brighton studio was more than capable of producing.

The source also bemoaned the lack of advertising for recommended racing games Pure and Split/Second.

Nevertheless, from the ashes of Black Rock Studio have arisen new studios: Roundcube Entertainment, lead by Split/Second director Nick Baynes; ShortRound Games, formed by a quartet of previous Black Rock department directors; and BossAlien, fronted by Pure director Jason Avent.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 9 months ago

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

  • Lexx87 #1 9 months ago

    Shame Black Rock were a super little dev :(

  • Eraysor #2 9 months ago

    So glad EA are making a new SSX; Pure was pretty much the only great game in that mould for this entire generation. Think I might go play it now in their honour!

  • MrChuckles #3 9 months ago

    Sounds like the directors all got good payoffs then...

  • mrblonde #4 9 months ago

    sad probably the best arcade racer devs this generation besides codies.

  • Doctor_What #5 9 months ago

    I know a few people who have worked there and they generally have high praise for the studio itself, albeit not necessarily the handling of the studio from external areas. Good luck to all the staff heading elsewhere. I hope you all find something soon with a minimum of problems for you and your loved ones.

  • J0rdan_KZ #6 9 months ago

    A real, real shame :(

  • DiamondIce #7 9 months ago

    Very sad news. They had a real knack of creating amazingly fun racers.

  • sonicyoda #8 9 months ago

    Another one bites the dust! Sad times for the UK game industry. Best of luck to all in finding new work.

    Also, "Nevertheless, from the ashes of Black Rock Studio have arisen new studios: Roundcube Entertainment, lead by Split/Second director Nick Baynes; ShortRound Games, formed by a quartet of previous Black Rock department directors; and BossAlien, fronted by Pure director Jason Avent." Please don't just go and make iPhone games.

  • shirotsku #9 9 months ago

    Gutted for them and gutted for the industry, especially since Split/Second was so incredible.

  • wizlon #10 9 months ago

    Fuck you Disney!

  • Psiloc #11 9 months ago

    Don't you mean "officially"?

  • Daeltaja #12 9 months ago

    Hate hearing bad news like this..

    With recent closure of so many studios, not forgetting the huge numbers of lay-offs, there seems to be an awful lot of startups being formed. You do wonder how they are all going to make ends meat.

    Best of luck to them all, may you get what you deserve.

  • the9000 #13 9 months ago

    Absolutely gutting news. I loved Spilt/Second, easily one of my favorite racing games ever. I would have loved to see it turn it into a franchise!

  • Samirnasirov #14 9 months ago

    This sucks. I loved both Pure and Split/Second

  • metalangel #15 9 months ago

    "Official close its doors (subs please proofread)"

  • mrblonde #16 9 months ago

    Wonder why so many " arcade racer" devs are going under, bizzare ,then BRock. Blur,PGR 4 ,pure , SS etc are all amazing games imo.Think the FPS genre has a lot to do with this.
    Also it seems 2 duds commercially this generation and the studios gone
    Edited by mrblonde at 02/09/11 @ 11:50

  • edhe #17 9 months ago

    :(

    If only they hadn't released it in the wake of a market killer from rockstar and to compete with another arcade racer, blur, just at the start of the summer months.

    split/second was a great game and i wish everyone to have played it.

  • kassmageant #18 9 months ago

    at least this industry is more about people and their programming abilities - if they're talented programmers, they'll find a job in other studio - just don't send your CV to activision! : P

  • kassmageant #19 9 months ago

    at least this industry is more about people and their programming abilities - if they're talented programmers, they'll find a job in other studio - just don't send your CV to activision! : P

  • Quint2020 #20 9 months ago

    What a shame.

    Wouldn't it be lovely if our government actually supported the games industry?

  • fongy #21 9 months ago

    It's such a shame that cr@p, re-churned out games like the Modern Warfare franchise do so well with so little imagination / creativity, and developers like these close - who create really fun and original games (I have to say, I've been playing games for YEARS) and Split Second is easily one of my favourite games to date, perfect handling, such a brilliant concept, and always fun...
    And now they're gone...
    It's a disgrace...
    Good luck to them whatever they do, they should know they've given a old gamer some absolutely fab times...

  • Lord_BeeJee #22 9 months ago

    I would soooo love a sequel to split/second :/

  • muttler #23 9 months ago

    Just to remind people that Black Rock were previously called Climax, who made the excellent Moto GP games 06 and 07. Moto GP has been shite since it was given to Capcom or whoever. Great shame Black Rock have closed their doors :(

  • barkertron #24 9 months ago

    So over the last year or so, two previously successful UK studios bought out by big American companies have been closed down after a comparatively short space of time under their new ownership.

    Doesn't really make a compelling case for corporate buyouts does it?

  • DwarfyP #25 9 months ago

    Pure and Split/Second were both awesome games, shame Disney mismanaged the studio and good luck to everyone in their future ventures.

  • Zebula77 #26 9 months ago

    Too bad. Spilt/Second was an excellent racer, and I was looking forward to a sequel or follow-up game.

  • neems #27 9 months ago

    @edhe - I received my copies of Split Second and Red Dead Redemption on the same day. Gave them both a quick try, and then played Split Second almost exclusively until it was finished. Probably my game of 2010, I don't know if I've ever had so many 'Hell Yeah!' moments in a computer game, before or since.

    Red Dead was impressive, but kinda dull by comparison.

    In fact, I think it might be time to wipe my Split Second save data and start again from scratch.

  • DAN.E.B #28 9 months ago

    Yeah a real shame!
    loved split second it replaced burnout for me when Paridise went all "open world" where as this game played like a proper arcade racer choose a stage and go!
    I was really looking forward to split second 2.
    Edited by DAN.E.B at 02/09/11 @ 19:54

  • tinners #29 9 months ago

    Picked up pure again for peanuts recently, 3 years old and still it's doesn't look out of place with today's games, a massive shame and showed sega how to do blue sky's with arcade panache in todays market.

  • CamberGreber #30 9 months ago

    So NO Spit/Second 2 :(

  • BonzoBanana #31 9 months ago

    Looks like another industry where we there in the beginning in a big way but are gradually disappearing. The uk really needs one good uk publisher/distributor with global sales to help keep british development alive. As talented as the uk can be in so many areas we just lack good management a lot of the time. We really need to sort that out. Perhaps multiple uk developers ought to come together to form a new publisher/distributor or even takeover a foreign existing publisher?

    Maybe in 10 years time uk development will be officially dead with no major development done here, it seems thats what we are headed for. As more advanced hardware comes out the cost of developing for it will rise, it will take longer, need more people and upfront costs will be higher. It takes good management to organise something like that from beginning to end with the right product that people want at the end of it. I just don't see what the motivation for us/jap/french companies is to do that in the uk?