This sounds... "odd". If it was 100% true, we would hear some form of official statement by now.
In general, any developer currently making a game for a publisher will *not* go out of business. That is unless:
1/ They have huge debts anyway
2/ The development contract gets canceled (late delivery?)
3/ The publisher(s) in question go out of business.
If F5 were "actually" making a Kid Icarus game - and for Nintendo - its very, very unlikely they will close their doors. Unless Ninty pulls the contract.
...
Either way, F5 was pretty crap to be honest. I was shocked at the lack of progress in their "flight engine" games from the N64 shooter... all the way up to Lair. I don't know the key figures at the studio, but there must have been some mediocre developers and management in there - maybe backed by a couple of good, technical guys.
This is a positive really - the good people will get jobs at other studios, the lamers... can leave the industry forever (hopefully).
I was much more disappointed by the demise of Free Radical - basically due to a publisher dying.
...
People had better hope that Sony (or EA) *never* pulls out of game dev - if they do, you could see 10+ studios going down in a single week.
Gesta Non Verba
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