Apparently, one misfire is enough to get your studio canned by EA. After releasing the stellar Fight Night Round 3 in early 2006 and with an obvious follow up soon to come, Def Jam Vendetta was apparently a large enough failure to shut EA Chicago down.

EA’s reasoning is as follows:

… each team is responsible for staying on a reasonable path to profitability… Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn’t been able to meet that standard.

Fight Night is a Platinum Hit on the 360, and will surely end up in the Greatest Hits line on the PS3 at some point. How badly did Def Jam do exactly? The studio also had a Marvel fighting game coming down the line, which will be shuffled over to a different EA developer, along with Fight Night.