EA has officially closed Need for Speed Studio Black-Box!!!

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Tbone on 19 December 2008

Black box, the studio responsible for the Need for Speed and Skate franchises has officially been given the chop. EA has said in a press release:

"Shutting down the studio is part of EA’s restructuring plan that hopes to save them US$ 120 million in annual costs. Part of the plan is to reduce their overall workforce by 10%, or 1,000 people."

The press release had also stated the Black Box is only 1 of 9 studios that will be getting consolidated or shut down. it’s a damn shame isn’t it.

Well as long as they don’t decide to cut any of the guys from Bioware I think we will survive.

Let’s just hope that the upcoming Skate. 2 has been passed on to another game house or at least will get a chance to be finished. And who knows, EA might decide to keep the Need for Speed Franchise and just pass it on to another dev (maybe a better one). We’ll have to wait and see...

http://www.slicegaming.com/story-728-EA-has-officially-closed-Need-for-Speed-Studio-BlackBox.html

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Darc Requiem on 19 December 2008

The last three Need For Speed games have been underwhelming. EA closed it Chicago studio after one bomb, Def Jam Icon, and they had been the guys behind the hit Fight Night franchise. Black Box haven't been able to recapture the magic of Most Wanted and I guess EA finally decided to pull the plug.

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Andres9888 on 19 December 2008

This might be a good thing for need for speed because I love the franchise but hated the games since carbon,prostreet and undercover came out

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Tbone on 19 December 2008

I Agree on it hasnt been the same Need for speed for quite some years actually this gen but still its on of there most succesful franchises and it still sells just look at Undercover.

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Zombl337 on 19 December 2008

Black Box sucks ass anyways.....NFS games have sucked since Hot Pursuit 2, and Skate is garbage.

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DMeisterJ on 19 December 2008

Good Riddance.

Should have just made Most Wanted 2. With that crap ProStreet, and Carbon, and now this crap, they're finally done. All they have to do is close down Tiburon (Madden) and we'll be good to go, but that won't happen, it sold 4 million.

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tombi123 on 19 December 2008

Who cares about NFS. Skate was f**king awesome though. Looking forward to Skate 2, hopefully it will still be released.

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Onyxmeth on 19 December 2008

They should use some of the grunts to bulk up Criterion so they can make more games. I'm sure if Criterion got their hands on Need for Speed it would be the best entry ever in the series.

I wouldn't worry about Skate. EA is very proud of the series, so they'll probably just pass it along.

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