Activision axes 40 High Moon Studios employees upon completion of Deadpool

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]