by Courtney Tuchman
Zombie Studios, the Seattle developer best known for creating Blacklight: Retribution and the Spec Ops series, made the official announcement today that they would be shutting down after over 20 years of game development.
Zombie Studios’ owners state that they are retiring from work and transferring their remaining projects to other studios, including the in-process development and ownership of Blacklight: Retribution to newbie Builder Box Games. The studios’ employees are ex-Zombie workers and is lead by Andy Kipling and Russell Nelson, the former director of production and former director of Zombie Studios, respectively. Both are co-CEOs of Builder Box.
Kipling and Nelson wrote on their Facebook page:
“What does this mean for you the fan? While ownership of the game has changed, the people behind the scenes who have been constantly contributing to the Blacklight universe for the last four years remains intact. Builder Box will be working with Perfect World so that, as a fan, you can look forward to more updates and exciting changes in the coming year. Thank you for all the support that you have given Zombie and Blacklight over the years, and we look forward to your ongoing support as we transition to Builder Box.”The full post can be read here.
On the Zombie Studios website, a goodbye letter was posted. The letter thanks the fans and employees for their support, dedication, and passion.
Mark Long and Joanna Alexander founded Zombie Studios in 1994. They both acted as CEO of the company. In 2011, Long left Zombie Studios to work at Hawken studio Meteor Entertainment. More than 30 titles have been developed by Zombie, including Blacklight: Tango Down, Konami’s Saw games, and numerous Spec Ops expansions and titles.
Blacklight: Retribution was released through Perfect World Entertainment in 2012 for PC and was eventually brought to the PS4.
Zombie’s last game was the horror title Daylight, which came out last year.
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Source: Polygon, Facebook
Image: Polygon
