Rockstar has now confirmed what was rumoured and reported on the blog of Jurie Horneman on the 11th of this month. They gave the information to gamesindustry.biz stating "Yes, we can confirm the studio was closed on Thursday.". They also added in the statment "Employees will be offered packages in accordance with Austrian law, as well as other job opportunities within Take-Two and Rockstar Games where possible."

After several emails to Jurie about Manhunt 2 he has told us he can't give any information out we think he may still have a contract with Rockstar so it looks like he could have a job after all. It could also be the case however that he just doesn't want to be sued over leaking the details on some of the studios biggest titles. What ever the case we wish him well.

Well it is E3 time again and there is no mention of Manhunt 2 thus far, but in other news, Take-Two have closed its Rockstar Vienna studio with a reported 100 employees without a job effective immediately. Jurie Horneman's blog gives some insight into the situation and it is the main source of this news, the following is quoted from his blog.

This morning, as I came into work, I was greeted by security guards. It turned out Take-Two has closed their Rockstar Vienna office, effective immediately, "due to the challenging environment facing the video game business and our Company during this platform transition". This is the first time in 15 years that I've been laid off, or have had the place where I work shut down. Before now, I have always seen the writing on the wall in time and have gotten out before anything drastic happened. So this is kind of a new experience for me. This being Europe, I am not going to be living under a bridge tomorrow, but nevertheless this is a big upheaval. As far as I know, Rockstar Vienna was the biggest game development studio in Germany and Austria, with over a hundred employees.

We have it on good authority that Manhunt 2 has been in development at Rockstar Vienna since January 2004 with Rockstar North providing support. Rockstar Vienna was also responsible for the X-Box versions of Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and the X-Box/PS2 versions of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. What this means for future ports of Rockstar games is unclear, with Grand Theft Auto IV being announced for both X-Box 360 and PS3 at E3 it can only be assumed that Rockstar North will be handling both duties themselves, doesn’t sound too good for a Manhunt sequel with increased pressure on the developer. We wish those that find themselves jobless, luck in finding new jobs.

On another note I have been having computer problems so there won’t be any site updates for a few days.