Report: 50 jobs go at Vicarious Visions
Guitar Hero dev loses quarter of staff.
Activision has laid off around 50 staffers at Guitar Hero developer Vicarious Visions, reports claim.
A source close to the New York-based studio told Develop that "easily a quarter of studio staff" had lost their jobs following yesterday's announcement that the Guitar Hero franchise had been axed. Activision is reportedly helping affected staff find new employment.
However, the source insisted that the studio would not be closed down.
Vicarious Visions was responsible for the Wii version of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and has worked on a number of film tie-ins, most recently Transformers: War for Cybertron on DS. It was apparently working on a new Guitar Hero title when the plug was pulled.
Yesterday the publisher announced it was cutting 500 jobs and disbanding its music unit entirely. 7 Studios has closed, while DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games is "actively working with Activision on various options going forward for the studio." No formal statement has been made about the future of Neversoft, the outfit behind the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.