Activision made it clear last night from their quarterly earnings call that they would be shifting resources to their big name titles. Call of Duty and World of Warcraft might have a glitzy futureahead, but news came that there would be no music or skateboarding games developed for 2011. Compounded by the announcement that there would a total of 500 layoffs throughout the company, DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games is working with their parent organization on the restructuring.
"We're actively working with Activision on various options going forward for the studio," Freestyle's co-founders said in a statement. David Osbourn (design director), Jamie Jackson (creative director) and Chris Lee (commercial director) stressed that no decision has been made just yet. "We appreciate everyone's support through this process and will be as open and transparent as possible as soon as we know more."
While DJ Hero actually was praised by critics, for the most part, the title only generated 1.2 million sales. The figure was apparently low enough for Activision to make a firm decision on removing itself from “continued [declination] in the music genre.”
