Monumental cuts staff on game cancellation

Earlier today, Capcom announced that it had once again tapped Monumental Games to craft the latest installment in its MotoGP motorcycle racing sim, which is due out in March 2011. However, all is not well within the studio, as Develop reports today that the British studio has laid off staff after an "unexpected" cancellation of an unannounced project.

"Due to an unexpected project cancellation Monumental has been forced to restructure its business which has resulted in a number of job losses," CEO Rik Alexander said in a statement. "The company is saddened by the cuts and will provide the necessary support to those affected through the change." Alexander did not say how many employees were impacted by the cuts.

Beyond its work on MotoGP 10/11, Monumental is at work on its proprietary 3D massively multiplayer online game engine, Prime. The studio's previous work includes the Facebook title Little Horrors, as well as Hunters World and Football Superstars.

Monumental is currently shopping this engine around to a number of publishes, Develop reports. The studio also plans to continue developing games in both the social and the traditional spaces.