Behaviour closes Santiago studio
Developer of Fallout Shelter and Dead by Daylight lays off about 30 with shuttering of Chilean shop formerly known as Wanako Games
Behaviour Interactive has shut down its development studio in Santiago, Chile, according to a Gamasutra report. Around 30 people have lost their jobs as a result of the closure, while others were transferred to Behaviour's headquarters in Montreal.
"Behaviour's vision for our current projects and future ambition requires important technological and creative innovations," said the studio's communications manager. "Our assessment shows the Montreal ecosystem, with its effervescence, its talent pool and training programs, is better suited to achieve our long-term goals. As such, after a long and thoughtful analysis, we have decided to shut down our Santiago studio."
Behaviour's website lists the entire company as employing 325 people. It's unclear if that total has been updated since the Santiago closure.
The Santiago studio began life as Wanako Games in 2002, and developed the 2006 Xbox Live Arcade games 3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures and Assault Heroes. The company worked with Sierra Online as a publisher for those titles, and in early 2007 Sierra parent Vivendi Games acquired Wanako. However, later that year Vivendi merged its gaming business with Activision to form Activision Blizzard, and in early 2008 Wanako was sold to A2M (Artifical Mind and Movement), which would soon re-brand to is original name, Behaviour Interactive.
In recent years, Behaviour Santiago was best known as the development studio behind the hit mobile game Fallout Shelter. However, live operations were moved over to Bethesda Game Studios' Montreal location late in 2015.