NBA Ballers: Chosen One lead designer John Vignocchi recently gave his two weeks notice at Midway Chicago to help start a new venture capital backed studio in the city. The new studio, located on the north side of Chicago, will concentrate on creating games for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Vignocchi leaves Midway after working on five games with the company over the past 8 and a half years. His departure is just the latest in a stream of lay-offs and departures in the financial strapped company. In an email obtained by Kotaku last night, Matt Booty, interim CEO and president of Midway, told employees that the company laid off 90 Austin workers because the company felt that their open world game Career Criminal was likely not going to be successful, so they killed the project. The layoffs hit less than a week after Midway confirmed to Kotaku that a trio of high-level folks had left Midway's Chicago studio. Among those to leave were Mike Bilder, head of the studio, the internal developer responsible for Stranglehold, Mortal Kombat and Blitz: The League. Other confirmed departures include Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing, and Reilly Brennan, director of media relations. Two other high level staffers were rumored to have quit, including Vignocchi.
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