Lost Planet 3 developer Spark Unlimited shutters game development
Will transition into the film industry.
Spark Unlimited, the developer behind such titles as Lost Planet 3, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z and Legendary, has stopped developing games after 11 years.
The news was confirmed by Polygon after a NeoGAF poster noticed the studio was auctioning off its remaining assets.
Spark's chief technical officer John Butrovich told Polygon that "it's the end of Spark as a game developer" and that its key members "have decided to move on to other things." Apparently the studio's co-founder, Craig Allen, resigned as president and CEO to "pursue other ventures and interests" at the tail end of last year.
Butrovich confirmed that the company's unfinished free-to-play game was cancelled, though the studio's core team will remain working together on non-video game projects. For example, both Allen and Spark's COO/CFO Avi Bachar were executive producers on the 2014 film Nightmare Code.
The LA-based Spark Unlimited's debut title was Call of Duty: Finest Hour in 2004. It followed that up with Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Legendary, Lost Planet 3 and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.