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Vancouver video game company Radical Entertainment will be laying off about 100 employees, almost half of its staff, the company confirmed Wednesday.
The cuts stem from a decision by the company's owner -- Activision Blizzard -- to reduce the number of titles Radical produces by half.
"Activision Blizzard is committed to making the best games possible and has elected at this time to reduce the number of titles that Radical is developing from four games to two," Radical spokeswoman Leah Rubin said in an e-mail. "Therefore, we will be proportionately reducing the size of our studio."
The reductions come in the wake of an ownership change last month that saw France-based Vivendi, which owns Radical, and American video software company Activision, join forces as Activision Blizzard.
At the time of the merger, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told a Variety reporter that if projects didn't meet the company's requirements for return to shareholders and profitability, they wouldn't be retained.
Two weeks ago, Activision Blizzard released a statement saying it would "realign staffing" at Radical Entertainment as well as at High Moon Studios, which is located in San Diego, spurring rumours that layoffs were imminent. Radical currently has more than 200 employees.
Radical, High Moon, and two other operations -- Massive Entertainment, based in Malmo, Sweden and Swordfish Studios in Birmingham, England, are all development studios in Vivendi Games' Sierra Entertainment line.
On July 28, Activision Blizzard said it would go ahead with five games or franchises: Prototype, a new game from Radical that will debut in 2009; Ice Age, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and a yet-to-be-announced game. It did not mention Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand and any future games in the Robert Ludlum licence.
Rubin said Radical would be offering laid-off employees a number of tools and resources to help them find new employment.
mandrews@vancouversun.com
fionaanderson@vancouversun.com
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