Monolith staff axed in Sony transfer

News - Only a few travel with the Matrix

Whilst some twenty-five of Monolith's MMOG developers will be re-employed by Sony Online Entertainment, the remaining fifty-five staff previously working on the Matrix Online and the unnamed DC Comics MMOG project will be laid-off. The redundancies are a result of Sony purchasing Monolith's MMOG portfolio, as the Warner Bros-owned developer departs the genre for good. After the transfer to Sony is complete, some one-hundred staffers are expected to remain at Monolith, working on titles like F.E.A.R. and Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Sony's Austin, Texas studio will continue working on the CD Comics' licensed MMOG, which is reportedly based on DC's array of colourful comic book superheroes (putting it on collision course with City of Heroes, presumably), though details remain scant at present. This move cements Sony Online's position as the genre-leader, the firm already maintaining the Everquest series and Star Wars Galaxies. This dominance has however been challenged slightly of late, with the release of World of Warcraft from Blizzard which rocketed to the global number two spot. More on all massive, all multiplayer, and all online soon.