Update: Activision‘s financial results are out, and so is official word of True Crime‘s cancellation and Guitar Hero‘s disappearance.
“These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world’s best interactive entertainment experiences,” Activision said in a statement released tonight.
Activision said that it plans to “invest its capital and resources in the significant opportunities afforded by online gaming worldwide and will reduce its exposure to low-margin and low-potential businesses.”
In short, the company’s focused on Blizzard development, the Call of Duty franchise, and Bungie‘s new property, which they will publish. The company also said they plan on revealing an “innovative new universe” at Toy Fair this week, which it claims will “bring the world of toys, video games and the Internet together in an unprecedented way.”
The company concluded that “these investments should better position Activision Blizzard for long-term growth and enable it to continue expanding its position as the largest digital publisher.”
The company has yet to confirm layoffs at Freestyle Games and Vicarious visions, as rumored in the original story.
Thanks, Gamasutra.
Original Story (titled ‘Report: Activision to kill Guitar Hero, axe True Crime development’): Major happenings are to occur at Activision, ahead of their financial results tonight, if a Eurogamer report is accurate. The Call of Duty publisher will reportedly bid farewell to its once-prosperous Guitar Hero franchise, and axe development on United Front’s open-world True Crime sequel.
Additionally, layoffs have hit DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games and the Activision-owned Vicarious Visions. Supporting this piece of the report is BioWare‘s Manveer Heir, who tweeted in consideration to those who lost their jobs. Vicarious created the Wii version of last year’s Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
Last year, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that Guitar Hero had a future in 2011. In regards to True Crime, although updates have been scarce, a new screenshot was released last month.
Stay tuned. As soon as we know more, we’ll update this post.