'Forspoken' studio Luminous Productions will be folded into Square Enix

engadget.com:

Luminous Productions, the studio behind Forspoken, will soon close shop. Its team will be folded back into parent company Square Enix and tasked with working on other projects. The publisher set up the studio, which included the developers behind Final Fantasy XV, in 2018 to work on new franchises, but Forspoken was its only game as a standalone studio.

In a statement, Luminous said that its team will move back directly under Square Enix's umbrella starting on May 1st. In the meantime, the developers will continue to work on an update to address Forspoken's performance issues, as well as an expansion that's slated to arrive this summer.

"When we established Luminous Productions in 2018, our vision was to make AAA games that fused technology and artistry to deliver completely new play experiences," Luminous wrote on Twitter. "Having the chance to do just that has been a dream come true."

An Update from Luminous Productions pic.twitter.com/fbDENflRhj

In a statement of its own, Square Enix said it's absorbing the Luminous team as "part of the company’s efforts to further bolster the competitive prowess of the group’s development studios, a goal set forth under its current medium-term business strategy." It added that Luminous is "equipped not only with AAA title development capabilities but also technical expertise in areas such as game engine development. Combining the two entities will further enhance the Group’s ability to develop HD games."

This is hardly the first time that Square Enix has taken swift action against its studios after projects failed to meet expectations. Last year, it sold off three Western studios — Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal — as well as franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus