The original version noted that 5th Cell, the developer behind "Scribblenauts," was believed to be shutting down. The studio was working on a mobile game "Scribblenauts: Fighting Words," and this project shutdown resulted in wake of layoffs. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment was going to publish this mobile game; however, it has surfaced on the web that the new "Scribblenauts" will be shutting down, which created uproar.
Tim Borrelli, 5th Cell lead animator, published this news via Twitter. Using social media platform, he disclosed his lay off, following another wave of the laid offs. There are a total of 45 staff members who has lost their jobs from 5th Cell.
In 2009, the original "Scribblenauts" game was launched for Nintendo DS. This game was critically acclaimed for its innovative design. On Metacritic, it was rated 79/100. There are even four sequels "Super Scribblenauts," "Scribblenauts Remix," "Scribblenauts Unlimited," and "Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure" soon followed.
Studio CEO Jeremiah Slaczka, released a clarifying statement that 45 people were laid off and the company being not closing down. He added that 5th Cell will remain open and their focus is 25 percent on helping the laid off staff to make their transition to other external opportunities. Adding further, he said that if the company has failed to reach out, then any interested employer can reach them at jobs@5thcell.com. Currently, the company's focus is helping their employees, but no details yet were provided about their upcoming projects.
5th Cell is the developer of games such as "Drawn to Life" and "Scribblenauts," etc. The publisher unexpectedly cancelled out a project, which led to the laid off situation, and hence, they had to shut down the game production.
Also, funding for the game "Anchors in the Drift" has failed back in November, instead of receiving $500 thousand, they only received $107 thousand; however, reasons behind the canning of the game were not mentioned.