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Report: EA shuts down Bright Light
by Tom Curtis [Console/PC, Business]
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January 5, 2012
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After a series of negotiations late last year, Electronic Arts has decided to shut down the Guildford-based Bright Light Studios, which is responsible for the publisher's most recent licensed Harry Potter titles.
Details on the aftermath are sparse, but Bright Light officially closed its doors in mid-November, resulting in job losses and select reassignments for its former staff, reports Develop.
The number of affected employees has not been disclosed, but some Bright Light ex-pats have reportedly moved on to join other EA studios such as Criterion and Playfish, while others have joined Jagex and neighboring Guildford studio Supermassive Games.
In October, EA said it had entered into talks with Bright Light employees over a proposed closure in an effort to "centralize development on future projects, reduce development costs and will allow for better knowledge and talent sharing within the organization."
During these talks, EA stressed that "the UK is a vital center of game development for EA and we intend to maintain a strong presence here."
With Bright Light gone, EA is left with two more studios in the UK: the Burnout and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit developer Criterion Games and the social game studio Playfish.
Outside of EA's most recent Harry Potter releases, Bright Light was responsible for Create, an experimental user-generated content project that saw a quiet launch in November 2010.
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Anyway the shocker to me was that Bright Lights was supposed to be what was left of Bullfrog Productions! \O/
Bright Lights was sunk by two shitty Harry Potter games and the lackluster Create game. Both under the guidance of Emily Newton Dunn, former Bits girl game reviewer.
Emily Newton Dunn is very talented, educated, wise and clever. She is upstanding and honorable and a true asset, but she may or may not have also seriously affected the studio. -But what do I know, it's EA, it was probably sabotaged from elsewhere and END took the fall. We May Never Know.
Good luck to the employees at Bright Light. I only played 1 potter game (Order of the Phonenix) and thought it was fun and really was blown away by the enviornment art in particular. Hopefully you all got a good severance package and unemployment benefits for the rest of 2012.