David-D--NelsonSony Liverpool, creators of the vaunted WipEout franchise, unfortunately closed their doors over the summer.
As the saying goes “When God closes a door he opens a window” right? Such is the case with this band of developing brothers as they join together to form FireSprite.
The studio was announced today via press release at their new site, which you can check out right here. Managing Director Graeme Ankers introduces the vision for FireSprite thusly:
"At the start we looked back at the games we delivered over the past 20 years. Our journey goes back to Psygnosis and through to Studio Liverpool. Individuals on the team have worked on games that shaped the industry including titles for hardware launches that span PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3 and PSVita. The next step of that journey is Firesprite.
Firesprite was born when the Management and Creative Leads of Studio Liverpool came together with a shared vision of creating a new game studio. The founder team alone has 80+ years of experience and has worked on games such as Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings, Rollcage, Colony Wars, Killzone, Motorstorm, F1, and WipEout.”
FireSprite's most recent project was the visual side of Japan Studio's The Playroom, which debuted free with the Playstation 4. Japan Studio has some nice things to say about the team and we wish them all the best in their new endeavor at their new studio in Liverpool.
Related Game(s): WipEout, The Playroom
Happy, happy, joy, joy! Sure, they've been trimmed down from 100+ to 15, but I'm glad there's at least a chance for wipeout in the hands of the original creators.
Like your posts a lot Mr. Davidson. They are quick and simple, but get all the details across.
Great to here. No game studio deserves to be closed down, because everyone deserves a second chance. BRING BACK ZIPPER!
Thank you.
I would like to see 38 Studios have have another go at it.
well i wish them all the best and i'm sure like myself all of us here will be keen to see what they come up with in the future.
happy gaming =)
good to hear at least 15 of the souls are back where they belong.
still cant believe $ony shut them down, there the longest running most successful famous studio they have!
shutting them down is like ferrari trying to shut down pininfarina!
It really was a mistake by Sony. Zipper Interactive I could understand (NOT condone, guys). Sony was hemorrhaging money and Zipper's games were flopping left and right unfortunately.
SCE Liverpool though was still making great games and the reviews were high (plus they were working on PS4 launch titles).
It's great though that they're back at least. Hopefully they'll make a new WipeOut in the future.
This makes sense why they said "We're still alive" after closure.
I'm happy they have a new (smaller) studio but hey, it's better than nothing. With the announcement of a "reimagined" Shadow of the Beast, I hope Sony is preparing to revive more of Psygnosis's dormant IPs like Colony Wars, G-Police, and Alundra.