Spark Unlimited quits game development

Lost Planet 3 studio Spark Unlimited has laid off employees and abandoned game development.

A former employee confirmed the closure to Polygon after some of the company’s assets were spotted as being up for sale on NeoGaf.

Spark’s chief technical officer John Butrovich said that it’s the end of Spark as a game developer" with key staff moving onto other things”. Among those to have left the studio are co-founder, president and CEO Craig Allen.

Spark was working on a free-to-play title that has now been scrapped. Details of what non-game projects will arise as a result of the move remain unknown.

The studio’s first title was 2004’s then last-gen outing Call of Duty: Finest Hour. This was followed by a string of poorly received releases including Codemasters’ Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Bandai Namco’s Legendary, Capcom’s Lost Planet 3 and Tecmo Koei’s Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.