Darkside Games, an independent development studio which was working on the planned reboot of the cult classic Phantom Dust, shut down yesterday in the wake of news that Microsoft had cancelled its version of the game. According to Kotaku, all the 50 people that were working in the studio have lost their jobs.
Microsoft, however, says they’re still working on the upcoming Xbox One reboot, though they won’t say who’s now making the game or whether the new developer will use what Darkside has already created.
“Microsoft partnered with Darkside Game Studios in the development of Phantom Dust, but our working relationship has now ended,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “We have great respect for their studio and their work in the industry. While we do not have anything new to share on Phantom Dust at this time, we can confirm that development of the title continues. We look forward to sharing more details on the game as we get closer to release.”
Darkside, a small independent studio in Florida has mostly done contract work on games like Borderlands and Sunset Overdrive, had been at the helm of things for the first time with Phantom Dust. But when the studio’s heads today heard that Microsoft had axed their game, they were forced to let everyone go.
Phantom Dust originally came out in 2004 for the first Xbox. Microsoft announced plans to remake the game for Xbox One at E3 of 2014.