Monolith is effectively dead

[TronFAQ]

I was afraid of this, I guess. Could see it coming.

After Warner Bros. bought Monolith, they went into a slow decline. Producing fewer and fewer games. Additional FEAR spin-offs, including the latest FEAR Online, have been handed to other developers. The only noteworthy titles Monolith has released since FEAR 2 (in 2009) are Gotham City Impostors and Guardians of Middle-earth.


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Many of the most experienced staff at Monolith have left to form their own independent studio, including Craig Hubbard who worked on both the NOLF series and Tron 2.0. He's pretty much considered the most important contributor to the NOLF games, creatively speaking.

I expect Monolith to close down in the near future. With Warner handing off their projects to other devs, and Monolith having produced little themselves over the last four years, all signs point to WB either absorbing Monolith into its other divisions or simply shutting it down. Monolith already shares office space with Snowblind Studios.

[TronFAQ]

The staff that left Monolith - forming a company named Blackpowder Games - have just released their first title on Steam. Betrayer.



Despite mixed reviews from sites and magazines, user reviews for the game are pretty good. It does look intriguing. Something I'll probably pick up down the road.

They're not using the Lithtech engine any more, as you could probably guess. I believe the game was made with Unreal 3.

I'm not sure if (what's left of) Monolith themselves uses Lithtech any more. I think they do, but Jupiter EX - even if they've continued to update it - has been severely outclassed by other engines these days. They're not even licensing Lithtech out to anyone any more.

[Jizaboz]

I wonder if there will be any chance of an open-source version of the final Jupiter editor released..

[TronFAQ]

I wonder if there will be any chance of an open-source version of the final Jupiter editor released..

I doubt that a legal release will ever appear.


Well, since I started this topic last year, it appears that Monolith is not quite as dead as I thought. They brought out Shadow of Mordor, which has been a big hit for them. So looks like Monolith won't be shut down, after all. At least, not in the near future.

Doesn't change the fact that the majority of staff who worked on TRON 2.0, NOLF, etc. are gone. It's not the same company, any more. They'll endlessly be churning out games based on WB properties.

[Mrzozelow]

Alas, the same route that Rare took. Hopefully Playtonic finds success with Yooka-Laylee (the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie).