Report - Hudson Entertainment shutting down at the end of the month

A blog post by Hudson Entertainment's brand manager, Morgan Haro, states that the California arm of Hudson Soft will shut down at the end of the month as a result of Konmai's acquisition of the company.

According to Haro, the studio closure also means that previously planned projects at the location have been canceled.

"There apparently won't be any need for the talents within the San Mateo offices of Hudson Entertainment," wrote Haro. "It was revealed today that all of Hudson’s previously planned projects have been canceled and that our office will be closing it’s doors at the end of February.

"As the industry continues to march towards the drum of Western game development, Hudson became for me, a symbol of why Japan has fallen behind when it comes to bringing world-wide hits to gamers.

"The act of producing and developing a game in Japan, and then bringing that game over to the US to compete in an increasingly competitive market is more and more, and incredibly tough proposition. A challenge in itself to be sure, but to compound the issue, minimal communication and stifled collaboration seems to be hampering the chances of success. In previous generations, developers only had so many factors to worry about to produce a title that meets a general level of acceptance. But as we, as gamers, became more accustomed to games that demanded not only more from the player, and in turn, more from the developer, many companies seem to be having a hard time keeping up.

"All together, the key to better success for Hudson needed to be grounded in higher communication and collaboration on a game’s development from beginning to end. I could go more into detail about specific points for specific games, but speaking from a general level; bring the development out from isolation and use the creative resources we had here stateside to engage in a more collaborative development process. We have so many fun titles that could have benefited from our collective passion. So many franchises that we could have created and improved upon to make gamers sit up and pay attention. In fact, it was an initiative I had wanted to see through by going to the corporate office in Japan with the above mission in mind. But without taking measurable steps to bridge the culture, communication, and collaboration gap, we end up swimming in our own kiddie pool, watching the cool kids rush through the awesome waterslides on the other side of the fence.

"But at the end of the day, I have respect for Hudson’s goals, and I’m proud to have been a part of it."

Apparently, a press release will be issued soon, but in the meantime we'll email Konami.

Thanks, Joystiq.