Luma Arcade closes Joburg offices

It’s never great to hear bad news from the grape-vine – but Luma Arcade are shutting down their local operations here in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The news comes from a rather unseeming source over at wpcentral, which had earlier published a rumour saying that Luma Arcade, as a whole, was closing down due to financial problems.

However, Managing Director of Luma Arcade, Sam Williams, issued a statement to wpcentral clarifying the matter, saying that it was “not a decision taken lightly” and was only the Johannesburg office that was closing down.

The reasoning wasn’t apparently for financial reasons, according to Williams, but rather that, because most operations were happening outside of South Africa, the company would be “restructured” to accomodate operations out of the US.

Williams said that the restructuring will create a “healthier, more productive working relationship for the talented team that remains based in Johannesburg”.

What he didn’t say, however, was how this would impact the local development team, or what was going on at all, really.

We’ve reached out to local studio director, Luke Lamothe, for further comment, and we will hopefully update you with more details as soon as we’re privvy to them.

It’s a sad day for the local gaming scene.

Luma Arcade’s most recent title in development is Bladeslinger for iOS and Android.