Freestyle Games 'Actively Working With Activision' On Studio's Future

As Activision closes down its Guitar Hero business unit and announces 500 layoffs across its studios, reports have been flying of heavy damage -- if not closures altogether -- of studios who worked on peripheral-equipped music games for the publisher. In what's been a largely-quiet environment around the individual studios, one of the developers, UK-based DJ Hero house Freestyle Games, acquired by Activision back in 2008, is speaking up. "We're actively working with Activision on various options going forward for the studio," it said in a statement attributed to David Osbourn, Jamie Jackson and Chris Lee. The three are Freestyle's design director, creative director and commercial director, respectively, as well as initial co-founders of the studio. "No decisions have been taken at this stage," the statement emphasizes. The possibility that Freestyle could close was widely reported in the games press yesterday. "We appreciate everyone's support through this process and will be as open and transparent as possible as soon as we know more," it concludes. DJ Hero received a generally positive critical reception, and its sales at launch in October 2009 were only modest, as analysts said at the time. The game had sold 1.2 million units in North America as of July 2010.