Zynga owned NaturalMotion Oxford to be shut down says reports

It is reported by website Pocket Gamer that NaturalMotion Oxford is to be closed down by publisher Zynga.

A statement has reportedly been given to the website by Zynga that indicates the technology division of the company is being closed down and game development teams relocated. "As part of that work, in Q2 we wound down our third-party licensing and middleware businesses in Oxford, and today, after further review of that location, we’re announcing a proposal to close our Oxford office," the statement said.

"Much of the work done in our Oxford office currently supports products in development in our Brighton and London locations, so we see an opportunity to redeploy and increase our talent in those studios."

Zynga had previously announced its intention to refocus its efforts away from licensing its technology. Its Morpheme and Euphoria tools have been used in triple-A game development for a number of years, including Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine (RAGE).

The Oxford office is the central location for technology according to the NaturalMotion website, as well as housing small game development teams. NaturalMotion currently develops free-to-play titles such as CSR Racing, its sequel CSR 2 and Dawn of Titans. The developer was acquired by mobile publisher Zynga in 2014 for $527 million.