Ghost Games suffers layoffs, NFS game "on hold"

According to a report by Polygon, the Ghost Games studio in the UK has been hit by several layoffs, and an unannounced Need For Speed project under development at this studio has been put on hold. The report states that Electronic Arts dismissed contract workers earlier this week and presented full-time staff members with a choice: leave and take compensation, or help Dead Space series developer Visceral Games with "Havana", a rumored Battlefield title said to be planned for the end of the year. Ghost Games was responsible for the development of the latest NFS game, Rivals, which was released in November 2013 for PC, current- and next-gen consoles.

If these layoffs are true, things do not look good for the newly-formed Swedish studio Ghost Games, and if the past is to be taken into account, a closure of the studio might even be on the way. [url=http://forum.nfsunlimited.net/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=22411]Back in September 2013[/url], Criterion Games, the UK-based developer responsible for releasing Hot Pursuit 2010 and Most Wanted 2012 saw its staff reduced from 60 to 16 employees and, later on, in January 2014, Criterion Games co-founders Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward left the studio for good.

EA Black Box, the Canadian studio responsible for several NFS games between 2002 and 2011, was also shut down in early 2013, just months after being renamed as Quicklime Games. This was the studio responsible for the MMORG Need For Speed: World, which has been up and running for several months now without any update (179 days and counting), apparently in the hands of a very small team called "EAsy", which is based in Sweden, just as Ghost Games.