Trion closes San Diego studio

Trion Worlds is closing the doors of its San Diego office, the company has confirmed.

The news comes immediately after the announcement that former chief creative officer Scott Hartsman was returning to the company as CEO.

In December the company laid off 40 developers and another major round of layoffs followed in May, with some sources claiming 80 percent of staff had been let go.

While Trion said this figure was a wild exaggeration, it was clear the company was downsizing after the launch of its transmedia TV/MMO project Defiance.

This isn’t an uncommon move, as it takes a lot fewer staff to maintain an online game than to build it, but the number was certainly high, and led some to wonder if the company was in trouble.

Now Trion has confirmed to Gamasutra that the San Diego studio is closing, and work on Defiance will move to the Redwood City office.

“We can confirm that the San Diego studio will be closing,” reads the statement.

“The day to day operations of Defiance will be moved to our Redwood City studio where it can be managed alongside Rift and our other in development titles including ArcheAge and End of Nations."

"As part of this transition, we are working hard to ensure that a number of great people will be making the move from San Diego to the Bay Area and continue their work at Trion."

It is unknown just how many workers are to be affected by the closure.