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Activision shuts another dev, cancels Guitar Hero DLC

Thu 10 Feb 2011 4:56pm GMT / 11:56am EST / 8:56am PST
Business Publishing

7 Studios is latest confirmed casualty of shock restructure

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Further details have emerged regarding Activision's dramatic axing of its music games business last night.

Tweets from the official Guitar Hero account confirmed that, as well as the series seeing no more releases for the time being, its downloadable content is also on borrowed time.

"We will release the previously announced DLC track and mix packs for February, but we will not be able to release new DLC packs," the account revealed.

The only comment on the series' future was "We will continue to sell and support our catalogue of Guitar Hero, including Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock."

Further tweets from a member of Activision's LA in-house music game developer 7 Studios claimed that "Activision is shutting down the Guitar Hero business as of today. This includes my studio. Anyone know of any open associate producer jobs?"

2009 acquisition 7 Studios had assisted with DJ Hero and worked on Guitar Hero projects. The future of primary DJ Hero developer Freestyle and other internal studios remains uncertain, but Activision Blizzard has predicted around 500 job losses across the company.

Despite this, it claims expansion of its Call of Duty and Blizzard businesses means its ultimate headcount will not be "materially different."

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8 Comments

Jordan Woodward Level Designer, Codemasters Birmingham

44 0 0.0

Bad times, probably won't be the only studio shut by Activision. Good luck to everyone at 7 Studios.

The original title of this announcement - 'Activision shuts 7 Studios' shocked me a little lol.

Posted:5 years ago

John Donnelly Quality Assurance

313 38 0.1

Unless you knew of '7 Studios' the title would have been a shock.

Good luck to everyone effected.
Good things can from from bad days even if to does not feel like it at the time.

Posted:5 years ago

Alec Meer Director, Rock, Paper, Shotgun Ltd

34 0 0.0

Yep, I tweaked the headline when I worried similarly...

Posted:5 years ago

Terence Gage Freelance writer

1,289 126 0.1

Massive changes happening there; I guess this is all indicative of how deeply ingrained in the company the Hero franchise was. It's a real shame for all the people being let go because of their employer's stupidity as to how it treated one of its most valuable products.

Are any lessons being learned regarding the Call of Duty franchise though, I wonder...?

Posted:5 years ago

Daniel Vardy Studying HND IT, De Montfort University

90 1 0.0

looks like Activision are reducing their games list down to COD only. Problem with that is COD is going nowhere, all the wars have been done then redone another 5 times over. The COD franchise is still making money but I doubt it will be for long. The near future for gaming is looking good for indie devs.

Posted:5 years ago

Rick Lopez Illustrator, Graphic Designer

1,269 943 0.7

Thats what they get for milking the cow. Easy way to drive a succesful brand into the ground. Quantity over quality. Its not the game developer that fails. its the business models these publishers and stock holders impose. Such as "1 call of duty game per year" or "One Kingdom hearts game per year"... They literally take these game creators and burn them out rather then seek ways to prolong and develope talent. i bet they are in a race to find a new IP they can milk and destroy. They tried to do it with Grand theft auto. Shortly after the 4th game, I heard rumors of a Grand theft auto 5, and I think the developers didnt like that and said they wouldnt do it yet.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Rick Lopez on 10th February 2011 7:51pm

Posted:5 years ago

Greg Wilcox Creator, Destroy All Fanboys!

2,585 1,632 0.6

Hmmm.. It's not COD "only" as they have yet to say a thing about the profitable Marvel and Transformers licenses, Prototype 2 and whatever Bungie's new project is (although, if it's a COD game... I'll eat a shoe made out of bread).

I can't see them killing EVERY franchise they have, JUST making COD games for every device and relying on WoW profits and the upcoming (er, 2012+) release of Diablo III and the next Starcraft chapter to keep them in the black (he typed, only slightly sarcastically)...

Posted:5 years ago