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[Malitik Sabu]

If MC was correct, their games are 2004, 2008, 2013, and 2014.

So what were they doing from 2008-2013? I'm sure that may have something to do with their money issues. Especially since their 2013, and 2014 games did not seem to reach expectations.

 

[GavinUK86]

Damn, it's always a shame when devs shut down.

To people who never played Lost Planet 3, I bought it day one on PC and it's a fantastic game. I've finished it twice and loved it, really underrated. I never saw any marketing material for it though so I guess it was sent to die.

Yaiba and Legendary were horrible games. At least Legendary had a really interesting premise, just wasn't any good.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Damn, best of luck to all of those out of work.

Unfortunately, this isn't too surprising given their poor games and their sales but still, nobody deserves to be unemployed, it's a cold world out there.

Best wishes to everyone.

 

[Tapejara]

Disappointing. Spark's output was no doubt mediocre, but I like the games they made and was hoping to see them grow as a developer. Legendary was a solid game and I would have liked to have seen more from the IP. As well, I heard Lost Planet 3 was pretty good, but still have yet to play it.

I should pick up LP3 and Yaiba some time.

 

[Yuterald]

Lost Planet 3 has some nice facial animations and the game wasn't too bad, actually. Oh well.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

Sounds like they were another victim of Microsoft cancelling unannounced projects. Seem like a common story the past few months.

 

[samuraidino]

I feel bad for the individuals who've lost their jobs,as that always sucks.... but I cant say im too broken up or shocked that the studio itself was shut down.

They've had below average output for years and Im surprised they lasted this long.

 

[Quadraphonic]

Seems like this shut down was about the same as Krome. Where it's a "Yeah, the studio is technically still around, but with like 3 people doing something totally unreleated now."

 

[Purple Cheeto]

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/4/8548145/spark-unlimited-closure

Oddly this link doesn't load for me. Edit: Worked on my other computer, weird.

I was always floored by how much business they did with Japanese third parties.

They likely accepted really low bids.

Pretty much par for the course with these kinds of devs. Which is why most of them went out of business like 5 years ago. The plan at these studios was always "bid low, impress the publisher and get enough money to finish!" and these kinds of plans almost never work out sadly.

Glassdoor comments:

Till February they were working on a mobile title.

I interviewed with them 2? 3 years ago? For that mobile title, I thought I had the job and then they "reshuffled chairs internally" and the project got shut down. I think they paused work on it like 3 times.

At one point Spark had two offices out in Sherman Oaks. One working on console stuff and a smaller one working on the mobile stuff. Dunno how it all turned out.

They were basically the last non publisher owned console developer in Los Angeles (although I guesssssss Respawn/Big Red Button/The Workshop are all around so maybe not so much). People may hate on their games, but studios like this provide an important learning ground for developers and this is now one less place for people to gain console development experience.

 

[Karak]

Lost Planet 3 was one of the first games I did as a reviewer and I always enjoyed it more than most. Always sad when this stuff happens but a bit moreso to me for various reasons. Hope all land on their feet.

Sounds like they were another victim of Microsoft cancelling unannounced projects. Seem like a common story the past few months.

Oh wow I missed the completely. Which story said that? If true that would be odd.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

Oh wow I missed the completely. Which story said that? If true that would be odd.

None, just developer gossip.

 

[BTM]

I remember a few years ago where there was speculation they were working on Battlefront 3. Fun times

 

[bomblord1]

Not sure how they operate but most business liquidate old equipment after their lifecycle is up.

Most companies replace computers every 4 years or so and they don't just throw away the old ones they typically re-purpose a few of them and send the rest out to lots to be sold in bulk exactly in the fashion you see here. This includes everything from computers to printers to phones, chairs, pallets, and just about anything you can think of. I've worked in IT and spent hours wrapping up shipments to be taken to lots and sold.

TLDR Bulk equipment sales are not an indication of going out of business.

 

[Ravidrath]

Sounds like they were another victim of Microsoft cancelling unannounced projects. Seem like a common story the past few months.

I don't think they were working on anything else, and the game that I know was pulled from them wasn't for MS.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Lost Planet 3 will live on as one of my top 10 games in terms of "possibilities".
This is actually really damn disappointing to me.

 

[Tizoc]

Lost Planet 3 was a good TPS game, but I myself was surprised they were still around til now.

Yaiba was an OK Musou-like game, in fact the game's simple design was a good move IMO, so at least they went out making some good stuff in the end.

 

[Orochinagis]

The game didnt click for me but sucks to lost your jobs like that

 

[PaulExcellent]

Went out and picked up a copy of Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. Although I've already played a bit of it at a friend's house, I might as well own one of the last games I played from them.

Lost Planet 3 is way better, though. >.>

 

[Nudull]

Their games haven't been very hot after Call of Duty: Finest Hour, so this was, unfortunately, inevitable. Hope those folks can get new jobs quickly.

 

[Mdk7]

I'm obviously very very sorry for them and for all the people that lost their job, but frankly Yaiba was a trainwreck.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Not going to miss them one bit. Turning Point and Legendary are among the worst games I've ever played. It's surprising to me that they've stayed active for so long... normally I'd expect the studio to shut down after one big budget disaster.

 

[Hip Hop]

It sucks that people will lose their jobs, but I can't say no one saw this coming when your average metacritic score is around the 40%.

I remember the rumor swirling around that they were working on Battlefront 3 before this whole EA thing happened. I remember not wanting the game to ever come out if that would have been the case.

Was it the talent that put them in making those type of games? Mismanagement? Money?
Who knows.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Lost Planet 3 will live on as one of my top 10 games in terms of "possibilities".
This is actually really damn disappointing to me.

Legendary too had an awesome premise, it's just the execution which was lacking. A real shame; maybe they were just one game away from really hitting their stride, kind of like Double Helix.

 

[Joni]

Can't say I'm surprised, had the 'pleasure' of playing Turning Point and Legendary. Good luck to the employees, but please don't come back together under the same management.

 

[nephilimdj]

Looks like they were trying to cash into mobile before they collapsed, saw someone mention might of been MS fault.

http://www.sparkunlimited.com/jobs_currentjobs.html

Spark is pleased to present our current listings for our two F2P projects. The job listings are divided according to the project. Click on the job title for more information.

"mobile, casual, tablet, f2p, console" in the pic

 

[KingJ2002]

sad... but not surprised considering how much Lost Planet 3 & Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden bombed.

 

[Neuromancer]

Best of luck to everyone there. I didn't play many of their games but I really enjoyed Lost Planet 3.

 

[danmaku]

I don't know about you but I liked Yaiba, it's no masterpiece but it's fun. The biggest problem it had was attaching the name Ninja Gaiden to it. People should have treated it like it's own IP instead of being part of the NG series and that includes it's publisher.

On the other hand, without the NG name the game probably wouldn't have been funded anyway.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Ubisoft

EA

Microsoft

It's just a thing offices do...I don't know why. Smaller companies have less resources to make the interior look pretty but since these pics are clearly after everyone lost their job and moved out it's going to look a little...cold.

Interesting stuff there. I guess some tech companies are more comfortable with seeing the nuts and bolts of how their space actually works than most of the commercial stuff I get to look at. I will say that these are as you say obviously very large buildouts with an architect's hands apparent all over. I just know things like HVAC noise and non-volumetric lighting affects people's ability to work efficiently more than many of them realize. I gotta say though, EA's space looks the best there ;p