Developers behind Damnation head for the dole queue

The entire development team at Blue Omega have been laid off, following disagreements with publisher Codemasters. This action casts some light on the troubled development cycle that accompanied their last game, which was a retail version of a prize-winning, total-conversion Unreal mod.

Recent release Damnation got mostly mediocre reviews, probably owing to the raft of problems Blue Omega faced during the development of the title. At one point the developers were removed from the project, with the work being handed out to subcontractors.

As I've remarked before, it's always sad when the story behind a release is more interesting than the game itself. Third person action games have got to do a lot to distinguish themselves in today's market, and Damnation didn't even come close.

With their website already taken down, looks like it's curtains for this studio. Blue Omega were working on an unannounced title for Xbox, PS3 and PC at the time of their demise, and I think it's pretty safe to say that the title will be unannounced for at least a while longer.