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Yesterday, Disney closed Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios, putting all employees–including cofounder Warren Spector–out of a job. So what is next for the longtime designer? He has no idea. In a farewell post on Facebook, Spector praised his colleagues at Junction Point for their work and said he has many fond memories of the past eight years.

“Now it’s time to move on to the next adventure. I honestly don’t know what that will be yet, so don’t ask,” he said. “Anyway, whatever you think of me, or Junction Point, or Disney or the Disney Epic Mickey games–yes, I know we polarized people!–I’ll always look back on the last eight years with nothing but pride.”

Spector recalled that when Junction Point was just getting started, he thought that in the worst scenario, the studio would be a footnote in Disney history. Looking back, Spector said the studio achieved much more than this.

“With Mickey Mouse as our hero, we introduced a mainstream audience to some cool ‘core game’ concepts… and, most especially, we restored Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to a place of prominence,” he said. “We did that. Junction Point.”

It was confirmed yesterday that Spector will not remain a part of the Disney family following the closure of Junction Point. Spector has been in the game business for 30 years. Arguably his most famous work was 2000’s original Deus Ex, which he served as producer on at Ion Studios.

Not only did Disney close Junction Point yesterday, but the House of Mouse’s game division also cut 50 jobs across several studios as part of an effort to meet “market demands.” The company is currently focusing on Disney Infinity, a new toy-based gaming initiative that will compete directly with Activision’s Skylanders series. Activision is unfazed.

Dead Space 3 is hoping to entice gamers into multiple playthroughs. Executive producer Steve Papoutsis has said the upcoming third-person adventure will feature four additional difficulty modes which unlock after players beat the game for the first time as well as “disturbing” post-launch DLC.

Two of the additional modes, Classic and Hardcore, have clearly been made with Dead Space veterans in mind. Classic mode is a single-player only affair that ditches the game’s new crosshairs and resource management elements, which should make Dead Space 3 feel more similar to its predecessors.

Hardcore mode, on the other hand, only gives players one life for the entire campaign. Dead Space 2’s punishing Hardcore mode allowed players just three saves for the entire game, but offered an immensely powerful weapon to its survivors.

There’s also a classic New Game+ mode, as well as a Pure Survival mode where everything in the game has to be crafted. “Enemies ONLY drop resources, and there’s no ammo, health, or weapon parts to be found,” said Papoutsis on the Dead Space blog. “You’ll have to choose what to craft every time you see a bench. Upgrade? Med Pack? Plasma Core? Think fast — there’s a Waster right around the corner!”

Looking past the game’s launch next week, Papoutsis teased some post-game campaign DLC. “The team is hard at work on a top secret additional story that will be coming in a few weeks,” he said. “We’re not saying much, yet – but think ‘disturbing’ to get your imaginations going.”

Yesterday Papoutsis defended the PC port of Dead Space 3, saying developer Visceral Games was looking to create a “consistent” experience across all three platforms.

Dead Space 3, which also happens to feature Commander Shepard’s N7 armour, will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 5 in North America and February 8 in Europe.

Disney yesterday closed Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios, ending all positions at the Austin, Texas company. The Los Angeles Times reports that those weren’t the only layoffs that day, as about 50 staffers from several locations were let go Tuesday, according to a source.

The paper obtained an email sent to staffers yesterday from Disney Interactive co-president John Pleasants. It comments on the closure of Junction Point, as well as the challenges associated with operating in the games industry, but does not specifically call out other job cullings.

“Our division operates in a rapidly evolving industry and as a result we must sometimes make difficult decisions to ensure we’re meeting market demands. Unfortunately, today this meant announcing changes within Disney Interactive Games, including the closure of Junction Point Studios in Austin,” the statement reads.

“These decisions are never easy, or taken without serious thought and consideration, but they are essential in order for Disney Interactive to remain competitive and win.”

Separately, Joystiq reports Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two has sold 529,000 copies over November and December 2012 in the United States. In addition, the site states combined sales of Epic Mickey 2 and Nintendo 3DS game Epic Mickey: The Power of Ilusion in the region have reached 695,000 units over the same period. This means the 3DS game sold roughly 166,000 copies.

Junction Point Studios is no more. Disney Interactive provided a statement to Joystiq today, noting that it decided to close the Austin, Texas-based Epic Mickey studio due to organizational changes.

“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios,” a Disney representative said.

“We’re extremely grateful to [Junction Point founder Warren Spector] and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”

Separately, a Disney representative has confirmed with Polygon that Spector has left Disney altogether.

It is not clear what additional effect, if any, Disney’s organizational shift will have on its Games division. The company recently announced Disney Infinity, a new “toys to life” game that is currently in development at Avalanche Software for release this June.

Potential trouble at Junction Point came to light this week, when sources said staff had been on leave for more than a month. It is not clear how many were employed at the time at the company.

Junction Point shipped Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two in November. The game was not a critical or commercial success for Disney, recording mediocre review scores and reportedly selling 270,000 copies in the United States by the end of 2012.

Electronic Arts is stepping up its efforts to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. The Human Rights Campaign has announced a new Business Coalition for DOMA Repeal, a group made up of 13 Fortune 500 companies, including Electronic Arts.

Other companies include eBay, Armani Exchange, and Marriott International Inc., among others. No other game companies are part of the group.

All companies in the Business Coalition for DOMA Repeal support the Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals DOMA and recognizes all legal marriages for federal purposes.

The Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted by the federal government in 1996, legally defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The Obama administration since found the act’s third section (which contains the definition) unconstitutional, and has refused to act upon it.

Last summer, EA, Microsoft, and Zynga (among other non-gaming companies) stated their opposition for DOMA by signing a joint amicus brief.

The Prince of Persia franchise has been “paused” while the company thinks up new ideas. Speaking to IGN, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat said the series is taking a breather and this may actually be in the best interest of the franchise.

“Brand management is a tricky thing,” Mallat said. “It needs people’s attention a lot. I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused. But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it.”

Mallat noted that fans should not be worried, as Prince of Persia will remain part of Ubisoft’s portfolio, even if it doesn’t show up for some time.

“I’m not scared at all for Prince of Persia fans. We’ll find something to entertain them with in the future,” he said. “Prince of Persia is part of Ubisoft’s portfolio. As a matter of fact, we sometimes iterate on franchises and sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest. Prince of Persia is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft. As soon as we have something to show, we will.”

The Prince of Persia series has been dormant since 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. A film–Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time–was released in May 2010, but fell short.

In August last year, a screenshot reportedly from a new Prince of Persia game surfaced, but Ubisoft never commented on the image, and no news has followed.

Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni told The Penny Arcade Report that an internally produced game is inevitable, though the competitive gaming company is in no rush.

“One day we will. One day we will. Yeah,” he said. “We’ve had people approach us about it. Right now we want to focus on partners with games like PlanetSide 2 and help them broaden out and take advantage of what we’ve built.”

“But we can also take advantage of their understanding of the game mechanics. We’ve done this with folks at Bungie, with folks at Activision, we’ve done it with lots of studios. We’ve done that enough times to have the understanding to take to our own title, eventually.”

No firm plans are in place just yet for the MLG-developed game, but DiGiovanni said he hopes it would “disrupt” the current state of play.

“The thing is, I think it would have to be derivative of a few things. I loved Quake, and I’ve played a lot of Counter-Strike and fighting games,” DiGiovanni said. “The perfect game for me is something that would disrupt a little. I’ve always dreamed of a multi-screen experience where you have players and coaches interacting and having touch surfaces and communication… but that’s so complicated and hard to explain.”

Whatever the case, DiGiovanni and MLG are not likely to create the game anytime soon. “I don’t want to rush,” he said.

Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis has spoken out to clarify earlier reports that Isaac Clarke’s upcoming monster-tinged adventure would see a barebones PC port.

When asked why Dead Space 3 wouldn’t see a PC-optimised version by Shacknews, Papoutsis replied by saying the platform is “by no means any less important to us; it gets a lot of attention. The PC is a very different platform. As developers, you want to deliver an experience that’s as similar as possible on different platforms.”

Visceral Games continues “to evolve our games as we develop them,” added Papoutsis, “but we certainly don’t target PC as something that’s going to be significantly different. We aren’t trying to create disparity in the experience that our gamers enjoy; we want to make sure everyone’s having that same experience.”

A powerful PC will see benefits over the console version, then, but Visceral Games isn’t going out of its way to develop exclusive benefits like DICE did with the PC version of Battlefield 3. “The biggest thing is we want to make sure the quality of the experience is consistent across all platforms so we don’t have one userbase saying it’s better on their system,” said Papoutsis. “We want it to be great on all systems, that’s our approach.”

Dead Space 3 — complete with co-op, microtransactions and N7 armour — will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 5 in North America and February 8 in Europe.

Junction Point Studios is no more. Disney Interactive provided a statement to Joystiq today, noting that it decided to close the Austin, Texas-based Epic Mickey studio due to organizational changes.

“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios,” a Disney representative said.

“We’re extremely grateful to [Junction Point founder Warren Spector] and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”

Separately, a Disney representative has confirmed with Polygon that Spector has left Disney altogether.

It is not clear what additional effect, if any, Disney’s organizational shift will have on its Games division. The company recently announced Disney Infinity, a new “toys-to-life” game that is currently in development at Avalanche Software for release this June.

Potential trouble at Junction Point came to light this week, when sources said staff had been on leave for more than a month. It is not clear how many were employed at the time of the company.

Junction Point shipped Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two in November. The game was not a critical or commercial success for Disney, recording mediocre review scores and reportedly selling 270,000 copies in the United States by the end of 2012.