Nihilistic rebrands and shifts focus to digital

The studio currently working on Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified for PS Vita is to abandon the console gaming sector.

Nihilistic Software has also decided to take the decision to rebrand, adopting the new name nStigate Games.

In future, it will focus on digital and mobile titles. It claims that no jobs will be lost during the transition, though it does have a long-term aim of becoming “leaner” and “more focused”.

Nihilistic’s previous titles include Resistance: Burning Skies, PlayStation Move Heroes and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

“There’s no bigger cliché in the videogame industry right now than to say that a studio is re-organizing itself away from retail game development and toward the new challenges of downloadable and mobile games,” it wrote on its company website.

“Everyone knows retail sales are down, publishers are hurting, independent developers are suffering, blah blah blah. With this in mind, Nihilistic is announcing today that (OMG!) we are re-organizing our company after 14 years of working with retail boxed game development, and re-forming as nStigate Games, a new company focused on downloadable, on-line, and mobile games.

“So is this newsworthy? Well, honestly it probably isn’t, except that we are making this transition without any planned layoffs or leaving any debts behind. Nihilistic will fade into the sunset the way it started; a collaboration of talented folks dedicated to transparency and respect for employees. Over the next couple months we’ll get leaner as some of our talent finds new homes, and emerge as a smaller and more focused company.”

Nihilistic was founded in 1998 by Ray Gresko, Robert Huebner and Steve Tietze. Based in Novato, California, the studio started over with 12 people, but has grown to over 60 today.