Pink slips were flying around the offices at High Moon Studios today as Activision has decided to lay off 40 of its full-time employees. The cuts began happening right after the High Moon Studios team completed development of Activision’s upcoming Deadpool game. Activision stated that it “works to align its costs with its revenues,” and that reducing its staff is all part of aligning “our development talent against our slate.”
While there is a massive amount of lay offs happening at High Moon Studios, development of its future Transformers games, including War of Cybertron, Dark of the Moon, and Fall of Cybertron, will not be affected. It was only back in February when Activision decided to lay off 30 full-time employees from both its offices as well as from Treyarch’s studios. It released a similar statement back then, saying that it “works to align its costs with its revenue”.
Like the employees that were laid off back in February, the employees laid off from High Moon Studios will be offered outplacement counseling services. The counseling services will help the employees through the termination of their job, and will hopefully be able to help them secure new employment elsewhere. The services usually help set up interviews, assist in job searches, offer networking services, and much more in order to help the employee transition to their next job.
Deadpool’s storyline is penned by Daniel Way, who wrote the former Deadpool comics. Deadpool’s character will be voiced by Nolan North, who has voiced Deadpool in the past. The game is a 3rd person action game with a major emphasis on guns and swords. Deadpool will break the 4th wall numerous times to offer players hints, and also to add humor to the game. Deadpool is set to launch over the summer on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC.
[via Kotaku]
Activision axes 40 High Moon Studios employees upon completion of Deadpool is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
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We’ve seen tons of customized Xbox controllers in the past, but we can’t help but feel that perhaps this Dishonored-inspired Xbox 360 controller might take the cake. Designed by Devin Smith of End of Line Designs has finished piecing together a Dishonored Xbox 360 control pad which definitely goes beyond a mere painting or skinning. As you can see, almost every component on the surface of the controller is custom, ranging from the buttons, the grips and even the replacement of the Microsoft Xbox logo with the Dishonored symbol which appears to light up as well. While it looks pretty awesome, the metal “stitching” on the lower part of the controller might be somewhat uncomfortable after extended periods of time, but then again we have a feeling that controllers like these are meant to be admired more than played. We’re not sure if Smith will be selling his creation, but you can check out his other work and additional photos of the controller on his 
