Silverball opens following Fuse closure

The UK studio formerly known as Fuse Games is no more following its closure last month – but Develop can reveal that its management team have reformed as Silverball Studios.

Founded in 2002, Fuse Games is best known for the likes of Mario Pinball Land for the GBA and Metroid Prime Pinball for the DS.

It was one of few studios outside of Nintendo’s Japan HQ to have a first-party publishing deal with the format-holder. Fuse most recently released Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon for DSiWare and also developed Active Health with Carol Vorderman for the DS.

However, the studio went into voluntary liquidation last month when some of Fuse’s shareholders parted company.

"Following on from the successful completion of Pinball Pulse for Nintendo, Fuse Games entered the process of voluntary liquidation on the November 3rd, 2009," former MD Adrian Barritt told Develop today.

"The liquidation was triggered because some of the shareholders of Fuse wanted to go their separate ways."

Just days later, however, Barritt and Fuse co-founder Richard Horrocks opened Silverball Studios – a new venture that acquired the assets of Fuse and employed all its former staff. Former Empire Interactive founder Simon Jeffrey is also on board as a director.

The trio and their team are now "currently busy working on exciting games for Wii and DS," Barritt told Develop.