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Former Kaos Studios boss becomes senior creative director at Ubisoft Red Storm
Following the recent closure of Kaos Studios, it seems that the former studio's creative lead won't be making the jump to THQ Montreal alongside his colleagues. Homefront creative lead David Votypka is now officially senior creative director at Ubisoft's North Carolina-based Red Storm studio. His LinkedIn profile confirms the move. The studio is known for its work on Tom Clancy games, having most recently worked on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and now rumored to be involved with an unannounced Rainbow Six title. It's unclear what Votypka's next project will be, but we've reached out to Ubisoft for more information. And as he's just moved from New York City to Cary, North Carolina, it's highly likely he will miss Shake Shack, but fully embrace delicious North Carolina BBQ. (That's unconfirmed, of course.)
Kaos employees concerned about studio move or closure
Though the Kaos Studios team is currently in New York toiling away on Homefront, some are worried it'll be the last game they make in the city, according to a Develop report. A Kaos source told the publication that some staffers have voiced concerns that they'll be uprooted after the project is finished and moved to THQ's new, tax-friendly 400-person-capacity studio in Montreal. Kaos boss David Votypka didn't dismiss the employee concerns when Develop asked for his take on them. He admitted "the goal has always been to find a way to utilize [the Montreal facility] in future Kaos projects" as "New York is not the most inexpensive location to develop games." But exactly how that move would shake out -- whether it would result in two homes for Kaos, or the studio closing and being enveloped by THQ Montreal -- is unclear. Votypka said that while various scenarios have been submitted to THQ, he doesn't expect a final decision "for some time yet." We imagine much of the eventual decision rests on how well Homefront performs when it launches on March 8.
THQ and Kaos defend 6 month 'crunch' for Homefront
Accusations of an exhaustive "crunch" at Homefront developer Kaos have been met head-on by parent company THQ and the studio's general manager David Votypka. Develop is covering all sides of the issue, including Votypka's acknowledgement that the studio has been crunching for the last six months, with 10 hour days. He notes, "If this seems unique or abhorrent, I would have to suggest that any assessment regarding a 10 hour work day would need to consider a much larger segment of the American workforce." The anonymous employee also wrote up their own piece for Develop expressing fears about "THQ publicly [saying] things that glorify crunch time." The source feels that management shouldn't have put the team on a schedule that created this extended, "seven day a week crunch mode." "Crunch," loosely defined as the overtime-intensive period before a game ships, is an industry standard. The issue certainly gets sensitive whenever brought up, and it always seems like the specter of EA Spouse is watching the conversation.
