EA prepping closure of its Guildford studio

The repealing of the British videogame tax relief continues to negatively affect the industry in the UK, as Electronic Arts will probably shutter EA Bright Light Guildford, which developed the Harry Potter and Hasbro video games as well as Create.

GameSpot is reporting that a spokesperson from Electronic Arts confirmed that a ”formal consultation process” with employees regarding the closure of operations has begun, with a portion of the personnel being considered for positions in other EA studios in the UK. According to the publisher, this will ”centralize development on future projects, reduce development costs, and allow for better knowledge and talent sharing within the organization.”

EA established the Guildford-based studio in 1995 as “EA UK”, changing its name to EA Bright Light in 2007. The studio owned the Bullfrog Productions catalog, including games like Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, and Theme Park, but it soon found its niche making family friendly fare. With Bright Light’s closure, the only remaining EA studio in the UK will be Criterion.

EA isn’t the only publisher to shutter a Guildford-based studio, as Codemasters also targeted its studio in the region for closure, after the tepid sales of its FPS Bodycount.