Edge Online writes: "Spacetime Studios has been forced to significantly reduce its staff headcount while it self-funds its operations as it continues to search for a publishing deal for science-fiction MMO Blackstar.
"Our studio cannot survive at its current burn rate without a publishing deal, so we face a necessary (though very difficult and painful) decision," the company said in a statement on its website.
"We are scaling down from thirty-two down to sixteen folks in the hopes of developing a pitch, a prototype and another publishing deal."
GameZebo - While many developers are trying to push the boundaries of the iPhone when it comes to things like graphics (Infinity Blade, Real Racing 2), I’d be inclined to argue that the biggest challenge an iOS developer could tackle is bringing a living, breathing MMO world to a portable device.
TouchGen - I’ve been playing Spacetime Studio’s Pocket Legends since it launched, and I still recommend it to my friends to this day. Why? It has done nothing but improve over the past year of it’s existence, it’s developers have their ears to the community, it works on EDGE, 3G, and wifi, it looks awesome, it’s fun to play… should I go on? (No, cuz I’m not getting paid to write this mush.) Pocket Legends is the single best MMORPG on any iOS or Android device, period. When I reviewed the game last year, it was a mere shell of what it is now.
Despite the leagues of self-proclaimed massively multiplayer games on iPhone and iPad, few actually deliver the scale of truly massive online games.
Blackstar is among those rare exceptions, coming from storied developer Spacetime Studios whose previous title Pocket Legends established them as on the cutting edge of mobile massively multiplayer game design.