Free-to-play pioneer Outspark faces closure

One of the first western companies to focus on free-to-play MMOs may close its doors for good.

Outspark was launched in 2006 by former Yahoo Games director Susan Choe and former Starz Media CTO Nick Foster, and published Fiesta Online and Secret of the Solstice.

On Friday Gamigo said it had taken over operations of Fiesta Online, but had no plans for any other titles from the San Francisco company.

"It’s an amazing exit to Outspark, one of the earliest and greatest founders of the Free-to-Play MMO space," said Outspark CEO Philip Yun.

“We’ve had a great time building up Outspark and gamigo will take the combined Fiesta to the next stage and build further onto the pioneer work that has been done by Outspark. We are happy to announce that also a substantial part of the team has joined gamigo, and will work from gamigo’s San Francisco office to manage and support the games.”

As a result of the acquisition Gamigo will relocate its US office from New York to San Francisco.

Yun told Gamasutra the publisher still technically exists, but has been reduced to a core team and its board of directors due to staff transfers and layoffs.

Outspark still has some projects in the pipeline, but the future of these games hangs in the balance as the team decides if it can continue or should shut down and sell or cancel its current projects.