Prizefighter dev counted out, Take-Two 'assessing' staff
Just under a month after shipping Don King Presents Prizefighter for Xbox 360, UK-based Venom Games is reportedly closing up shop. Computer and Video Games cites a source at the company, who divulged that Venom staff were informed of the closure Wednesday.
We contacted Take-Two, who published Prizefighter under its 2K Sports label, and were told by a spokesperson that it is currently "assessing the role of Venom Games in Take-Two's overall global studio system," and "in a consultation with the employees of Venom in relation to possible redundancies at the studio."
So it's not closing? Take-Two's official line is that "no final decision will be made until after the consultation with employees," which CVG reports has already happened ... if "consultation about redundancies" is a polite term for telling someone they've been sacked.
Venom Games was handling the Wii and DS versions of Prizefighter and had previously ported Human Head's Prey to 360. 2K Sports could not offer official comment on the fate of Prizefighter on Nintendo's platforms, but the games are still slated for September release according to numerous online retailers.
On an interesting note, CVG also makes mention that Venom Games was originally tapped to handle the PS3 port of Bioshock, which was, according to its source at the company, supposed to launch simultaneously alongside the Xbox 360 version. We now know that no less than four studios are handling BioShock for PS3, none of which are Venom. That's got to sting.
