Black Rock Studio

Black Rock Studios Limited was a video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Group in 1999 and was renamed Climax Brighton. In 2004, it became Climax Racing, as the Climax Group rebranded its studios.[2] On 28 September 2006, it was acquired by DIS (formerly known as Buena Vista Games in that time) and was eventually renamed Black Rock Studio in 2007.[3] The last game the studio developed for the Climax Group was MotoGP '07, which was completed after its acquisition by Buena Vista Games. The name is derived from a district in Brighton.[4] In early 2011, the company faced lay-offs and was forced to abandon sequels for Pure and Split/Second. Despite good reviews for both games, Disney turned down both sequels to focus on freemium content.[5]

Black Rock Studios Limited

Formerly	Pixel Planet (1998-1999) Climax Studios Limited (1999-2003) Climax Studios (Brighton) Limited (2003-2004) Climax Driving Limited (2004) Climax Racing Limited (2004-2006)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	1998
Founder	Tony Beckwith
Defunct	2011[1]
Headquarters	Brighton , United Kingdom
Owner	The Walt Disney Company
Number of employees	300
Parent	Climax Group (1999-2006) Disney Interactive Studios (2006-2011)
Website	Official website

On 30 June 2011, Disney Interactive Studios announced their intent to enter a consultation process on the proposal to close the studios. It was later confirmed that the studio has been shut down and that several 300 ex-employees have formed new studios, including Studio Gobo, Roundcube Entertainment, ShortRound Games, and Boss Alien.[6]