Foundation 9 cuts back on staff, closes Fizz Factor Studio

Foundation 9 has cut back on staff, closed its Fizz Factor studio and merged Amaze and Griptonite due to the slowing market.

"It’s important to F9 to remain a strong and profitable studio, so that we can continue to provide the best possible services to our publishing partners and employees," read a company statement. "From time to time we make decisions to grow or shrink capacity in relation to market conditions, and we do not make public comments on these decisions.

"We can confirm that we recently merged the operations of our two Kirkland studios, Amaze and Griptonite. Having separate 'console' and 'handheld' studios under the same roof simply didn’t make sense in light of the convergence in capabilities of modern game hardware.

"J.C Connors, studio head of Griptonite, will lead the combined studio. As part of that restructuring, and our normal practice of monitoring business conditions, we made the decision to close our Austin, TX handheld studio, Fizz Factor."

Currently working on Assassin's Creed II and Where the Wild Things Are, Foundation 9 plans to make addition cuts at Double Helix Games and suspend matching payments to the company 401K fund.

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