UTV Ignition Closes East, West Coast Locations In U.S., Consolidates In Austin

El Shaddai publisher and developer UTV Ignition confirmed Wednesday it is closing its West and East Coast U.S. offices and consolidating all staff to its Austin, TX location, home of sibling microtransaction gaming studio UTV True Games. The consolidation announcement confirms reports last year that UTV Ignition would shutter its Gainesville, FL studio, which had been working on the Unreal Engine 3-based first-person shooter Reich. The company's main U.S. office in Glendale, CA, where UTV Ignition handled publishing operations, is also closed as part of the consolidation. The move effectively moves all publishing and development staff into a single location. Austin is home to numerous gaming companies, including Star Wars: The Old Republic developer BioWare Austin, Epic Mickey House Junction Point and others. The company said the consolidation will make UTV Ignition "more efficient and streamlined." UTV Ignition currently has offices in Austin and Tokyo, and is headquartered in the UK, where the company recently halted development operations. Development of Reich will now continue in Austin, the company said, adding that "key personnel along with additional new hires will create a new internal development team" for the game. Group chairman of UTV Ignition Hassan Sadiq said, "In the last few years Ignition Entertainment's operations have grown and spread out to the East and West Coast so we decided it was time to bring them under one roof. ... we will also continue strategic outsourcing options in order to ensure flexibility and broader expertise..." Ignition was originally founded as a publisher in 2002, with the notable role of publishing SNK's marquee brands (Metal Slug, King of Fighters) in Europe. UTV opened the additional development offices when it acquired Ignition in 2007, and the company's continued to be responsible for the North American publication of many Japanese cult hits, such as Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Access Games' Deadly Premonition. UTV Ignition's Tokyo studio is currently at work developing El Shaddai, a visually-unique game that merges Japanese culture and Western religion.