GREE International shuts Vancouver studio
"Decided to focus our talent on building new gameplay within our biggest franchises"
GREE International is closing down its Vancouver operations.
The news came in a company update from COO Andrew Sheppard.
"Today, we take the next difficult step in this journey to once again become a global gaming powerhouse in the West. Effective immediately, GREE International is shutting down our office in Vancouver, Canada and discontinuing the development of all mobile games from that studio."
"After evaluating market conditions and the needs of our current and future games, we have decided to focus our talent on building new gameplay within our biggest franchises and on elevating our commitment to service excellence. We will also continue to invest in operating our games in Europe, which means post launch that we will be offering EU-hosted marketing, gameplay and live events for the region. And, in the background, we will be methodically preparing ourselves to invest in a new generation of mobile hits - more on that to come in the future."
Sheppard also asked those interested in recruiting any of the employees affected to contact GREE at GREEHR@gree.net
The studio was opened in 2012 with Steve Lin, formerly of OpenFeint and Google, heading it up as GM.
Lin took to Twitter to help his former colleagues find new jobs.