Yesterday Karl reported that Raven Software had been hit with multiple layoffs, which whittled their staff down by forty people and relegated the company to producing DLC. Raven was acquired by Activision in the late nineties.
It seems Activision’s march of doom is set to continue as the layoffs have now struck Robomodo, the developers behind the current peripheral-based Tony Hawk franchise. This just two weeks before their latest entry into the skating series is set to release.
Tony Hawk: Ride was the first game in the franchise to introduce the plastic skateboard controller. It wasn’t received very well but that didn’t stop Activision giving the go-ahead for a second attempt in the form of Tony Hawk: Shred. Now, it seems Activision is judging the product before it even releases as most of the development team has been axed and the Tony Hawk franchise has been taken away from Robomodo.
Robomodo’s president, Josh Tsui, issued the following statement:
“It is always difficult to let hard-working and valued employees go. Robomodo has retained all of the company’s directors and leads, along with other staff members. All are busy working on future projects and ideas, which will become the innovative games of tomorrow. We hope to bring back some of our team as we ramp up on our next projects.â€
So, is Activision on a developer-gutting rampage at the moment? Will there be another company getting pruned in the next few days? FreeStyleGames, the developers of DJ Hero? They’re also about to release a sequel in a series that uses a plastic peripheral…
Source: Kotaku
Last Updated: October 13, 2010
