First, someone seems to have picked up Free Radical. Crytek, developer of Far Cry (not Far Cry 2), has reportedly bought the crippled studio, saving 43 jobs. As Examiner.com points out, this is more than just philanthropy. Crytek, whose focus has always been PC gaming, just acquired the skeleton crew of an esteemed console developer. This should prove extremely useful when trying to port the hardware-guzzling behemoth Crysis to consoles. And who knows, maybe they’ll get cracking on Timesplitters 4.
In other good news, the good people of Michigan love them some Stardock. The Sins of a Solar Empire dev recently announced plans to open a second studio in Wayne County, as well as to hire 50 people to work an unnamed project. Gamasutra’s got some details on the generous Michigan tax credits that paved the way for this expansion. Hell, Stardock even got mentioned in Governor Jennifer Granholm’s awkwardly-titled State of the State address.
50 game development jobs probably won’t ease the woes of a state so intricately linked with our anemic auto industry, and the pickup of one closing studio will not turn the whole industry around. But with the way things are, I’ll take any good news I can get.
