Black Rock Studio

Black Rock Studio Limited was a British 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: Velocity. Despite good reviews for both games, Disney turned down both sequels to focus on freemium content.^[5]

Black Rock Studio 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)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
Founder	Tony Beckwith
Defunct	2011; 14 years ago (2011)[1]
Fate	Liquidation
Successor	Library: Disney Interactive
Headquarters	Brighton , United Kingdom
Number of employees	300
Parent	Climax Studios (1999–2006) Disney Interactive Studios (2006–2011)
Website	disney.co.uk/disneyinteractivestudios/blackrockstudio

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, West Pier Studio, Roundcube Entertainment, ShortRound Games, and Boss Alien.^[6]

Games

Year	Title	Platform(s)
as Climax Brighton
2002	Gumball 3000	PlayStation 2
2002	MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology	Windows, Xbox
2002	Rally Fusion: Race of Champions	PlayStation 2, Xbox
2003	ATV: Quad Power Racing 2	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
2003	MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology 2	Windows, Xbox
2003	The Italian Job	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
2003	Hot Wheels: World Race	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows
as Climax Racing
2004	ATV Offroad Fury 3	PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
2004	Crash 'n' Burn	Xbox, PlayStation 2
2004	Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge	Xbox, PlayStation 2, Windows
2005	MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology 3	Windows, Xbox
2006	MotoGP '06	Xbox 360
2006	ATV Offroad Fury 4	PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
2007	MotoGP '07	Windows, Xbox 360
as Black Rock Studio
2008	Pure	PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
2010	Split/Second: Velocity