Black Rock Studio Shut Down By Disney Interactive

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It’s been an awesome week to be a nerd, with IFA 2011 making headlines across the internet, Call of Duty XP 2011 kicking off and bringing us a ton of news about Modern Warfare 3, and DragonCon 2011 officially underway. Unfortunately, it isn’t all awesome news this week, as we’ve got the sad task of reporting that Black Rock Studio has had its doors shuttered for good.

News of Black Rock’s potential closing came back in July and was confirmed by Black Rock parent company Disney Interactive this weekend. Black Rock is responsible for racing games like Split/Second and Pure, and even though those games never achieved the success of other high-profile racing games like Forza and Gran Turismo, both Split/Second and Pure managed to secure quite the cult following.

I never got around to Split/Second, but I played Pure on Xbox 360 and loved every minute of it. It’s a shame to see these great racing developers drop lately, but at least there’s a glimmer of hope to be found within this depressing news – apparently, two new studios have risen from Black Rock’s ashes, ShortRound and RoundCube Entertainment. Both studios house a number of Black Rock’s former employees, so hopefully this isn’t the end of the delightfully different racers Black Rock was known for.