In a rare update for a blog that I never really have any news for now, but while skimming Sleepywood’s posts I found something that might be devastating to the future development of Sugar Rush.

It’s not new news to say that the world economy is in a recession.  Up here in Canada that recession hasn’t hit too badly (having a prime minister that’s an economist helps) but that unfortunately doesn’t save Sugar Rush’s developers: Humanature studios.  Two days ago, Kotaku reported that the Vancouver-based studio that works for Nexon is shutting down, and that they have already laid off 90 of their employees.

We’ve just gotten off the phone with the helpful, friendly receptionist at the Vancouver Nexon America development studio, who informed us that all of the approximately 90 employees at the location were let go this morning, and that the studio was now closed. One of our tipsters indicates that the news came by way of a studio-wide meeting this morning, which was expected to result in only half of the workforce being let go.

-Mike Fahey, Kotaku

This is bad news for those that were looking forward to Sugar Rush, and so far no comment has been made as to whether or not development will continue.  However, if you’re worried about Nexon’s other games, don’t be. Since all of Nexon America’s games are managed from LA, none of their games currently in service are affected, and the same probably goes for KartRider. (which has been out for nearly a year following the end of open beta)

This is also bad for the portion of the gaming industry operating out of Vancouver as well. Humanature is the second casualty of the gaming industry based out of downtown Vancouver alone, after rumors starting going aflutter about EA Black Box possibly shutting down as well.