Freestyle responds to closure concern

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 10 February, 2011

Is "working with Activision on various options".

DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games has broken its silence on Activision's closure of the Guitar Hero business.

In a statement issued to Eurogamer, Freestyle's design director David Osbourn, creative director Jamie Jackson and commercial director Chris Lee said: "We're actively working with Activision on various options going forward for the studio.

"No decisions have been taken at this stage. We appreciate everyone's support through this process and will be as open and transparent as possible as soon as we know more."

Last night Eurogamer broke the news that Activision had closed its Guitar Hero business, ending the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises. The US giant also revealed plans to axe 500 jobs.

Sources indicated Activision had hit Freestyle with layoffs, but the studio and its owner are yet to comment on this issue.

While already released downloadable content will still be available to purchase, no new tracks will be released.

During Activision's financial call to investors, publishing boss Eric Hirshberg explained the decision.

"Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably, based on current economics and demand," he said.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SAMagic #1 1 year ago

    Well it worked for Bizarre Creations didn't it?

  • RobTheBuilder #2 1 year ago

    You could run an entire console's worth of output on the talent that Activision has lost, sacked, sued, pushed out or made redundant this year.

  • Toothball #3 1 year ago

    Hmm, my brother-in-law was at Freestyle last I checked. I do hope he still has a job. He was also at the Rebellion studio that closed. Maybe he's cursed or something.

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #4 1 year ago

    "Working with Activision on stock options"

    - there, I have corrected it for you. :)

  • dadrester #5 1 year ago

    A couple of the guys at my work that got made redundant started there not more than 4 months ago :(. Hope they're ok. On the plus side there are a lot of studios in that neck of the wood and quite a few of them are recruiting, for example Playground games, and codemasters.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #6 1 year ago

    Best wishes to the guys and gals at Freestyle Games. You rock/scratch hard!

  • nuanimal #7 1 year ago

    I honestly do wish all those affected by Activision's closures, well for the future.

  • Golgo #8 1 year ago

    Activision: "You have various options available to you?"
    Freestyle: "Oh?"
    Activision: "Yes, joining an ever-expanding team on an exciting and well-established IP in the FPS genre, for example."
    Freestyle: "And the other options?"
    Activision: "..."

  • cloud_ix #9 1 year ago

    this possibly means they have been given the 90 day consultation period before activision can officially recommend closer :(

  • SavageEvil #10 1 year ago

    "Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably, based on current economics and demand,"

    Translation:

    Given that these games cannot sell like CoD and we can make that for pennies on the dollar, why spend money when we can just copy,print then paste a higher number and still sell millions. Based on our current economic position, we feel that we need to make more money in much cheaper way...in short we demand that you continue to buy our mass produced regurgitated buggy and half assed CoD games. Soon you will be able to CoD in adventure, sim, CoD jungle buggy with guns race, CoD Jet Ski Ops, Space Ops and many more are on the way :D.

  • actionfitz #11 1 year ago

    Used to work with quite a few of those folks when I was at Codies.
    Hope the guys all land on their feet.
    Best of luck Chaps.
    Fitz.

  • Lee_Morris #12 1 year ago

    Like Mr Minkley said on twitter, Activision crippled the series as soon as the announce a £120. Games with a peripheral need to come out at £70 or less. Anything more is crazy. If you can't make it for that price then publishers should go back to the drawing board and find a way to make these peripherals cheaper.