Activison made some major cuts yesterday. 30 staff members at their 7 Studios development team were laid off, a proposed result of the financial troubles the parent company endured due to the original publisher on the development team’s project Scratch: The Ultimate DJ suing Activision for supposedly attempting to make unfair gains for their related DJ Hero line. The cuts represent approximately half of the developer’s resources.
“Since the completion of its acquisition by Activision, 7 Studios has realigned its business to focus its development resources on the music genre,” read a statement issued by Activision. “As a part of this realignment, the studio is reducing its workforce to better reflect Activision’s upcoming slate of music-based games.”
Comparatively, however, 7 Studios still has legs to stand on. Activision completely shut the doors to its development team at Shaba Games, it’s entire staff of 30 laid off. Most recently known for Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, the company also has ties to Tony Hawk’s Project 8 and Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX. Industry analysts speculate both rounds of layoffs stem from underwhelming sales results from Guitar Hero 5 and – in Shaba’s case – the reception both from critics and gamers on Web of Shadows.