Starhawk was the long rumored follow-up to Starhawk, and it didn't make much of a splash.

Rumblings of trouble at Austin-based Starhawk developer LightBox Interactive have been confirmed.

24 members of LightBox were told Friday would be their last day at the company, Lightbox president Dylan Jobe told me over email this evening. All 24 employees will receive a severance package.

“Layoffs suck,” he said, “but we're just shrinking our development team here at LightBox Interactive so we can be very nimble as we self-fund our next game and bring it to iOS devices.”

The first indications something was up at LightBox came via a traditional source for vague news statements: Twitter.

“And yeah, its time for another drink...” said Jobe.

Other members of Lightbox chimed in, suggesting a major change. These days, it’s easy to assume it’s layoffs.

Lightbox had signed a multi-year, multi-game publishing agreement with Sony, but that deal appears dead, perhaps related to the tepid response to Starhawk. Lightbox was forged from the ashes of Incognito Entertainment, which was responsible for Twisted Metal Black and War of the Monsters. Both of those were excellent, by the way.