Matt Martin
15:13 (BST)
24/01/2008
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Juice Games working on two new projects
No change for dev following axed Juiced franchise
Following yesterday's announcement that THQ has given up on its street racing franchise Juiced, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal that development studio Juice Games is currently working on two new projects.
The studio had delivered Juiced, its next-gen sequel Hot Import Nights and the PSP version Juiced: Eliminator for THQ since being acquired by the company in March 2006.
THQ has canned a number of announced and unannounced titles following disappointing sales, and also said it will no longer pursue titles in the Stuntman franchise, which it bought from Atari in May 2006.
Despite the external turmoil, managing director of Juice Games Colin Bell has told GamesIndustry.biz that there are no big changes at the development studio, and the team continues its recruitment drive as it works on two yet-to-be announced titles for THQ.
"In a way it's disappointing to see the end of something that we created but there are sound commercial reasons for this decision that we must and do respect," he said.
"We are working on two very fresh and exciting projects that I can't discuss but the whole office is buzzing with the work we've done here recently," he added.
Although the decision to leave the Juiced franchise comes as the studio celebrates its fifth birthday, Bell said the company is concentrating on the future, with the team already restructured and working on the two new projects.
"Following the launch of Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights, we made a number of structural changes at the studio, mainly so that we could properly support two developed products rather than just the one franchise," detailed Bell.
"We've grown from 15 to nearly 100 staff in the five years so it's natural for us to evolve our structure," he said.
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