Black Ops Vita developer Nihilistic rebrands

Nihilistic, developer of upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, has rebranded to nStigate Games.

The new company will focus on downloadable, online and mobile games while scrapping traditional boxed retail titles.

The studio confirmed the news on its Facebook page, saying that the move is being made due to dwindling retail sales.

"There's no bigger cliché in the video game industry right now than to say that a studio is re-organising itself away from retail game development and toward the new challenges of downloadable and mobile games," the post stated.

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

The studio's last boxed retail game, Black Ops Declassified, has received a mixed reaction ahead of its launch next month. Check out a gameplay trailer and screenshots here.