On its Facebook page, Call of Duty: Black Ops - Declassified and Conan developer Nihilistic Software stated that it will be transitioning away from working on retail games and instead focus on downloadable and mobile games going forward.

"Everyone knows retail sales are down, publishers are hurting, independent developers are suffering, blah blah blah. With this in mind," reads the post, "Nihilistic is announcing today that (OMG!) we are re-organizing our company after 14 years of working with retail boxed game development, and re-forming as nStigate Games, a new company focused on downloadable, on-line, and mobile games."

The studio say it has no layoffs planned but that it will eventually become a learner company as some folks find positions elsewhere in the industry. While Nihilistic isn't known for its top-quality software, it's never fun for something like this to happen when it isn't on your own terms. At least here, it sounds like the damage is about as minimal as one could hope for.

Nihilistic Software ditch retail games to focus on downloadable and mobile products [VG247]