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Report: Radical, High Moon hit hard by layoffs

Prototype studio loses roughly 100 developers and two projects, while Bourne Supremacy creators shed 60 jobs.

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When Activision Blizzard announced its plans to streamline its newly merged allies at Vivendi Games, it warned that it would "realign" staff at Radical Entertainment and High Moon Studios. About 150 staffers have been realigned straight to the unemployment office, according to recent reports.

Radical's hometown paper, The Vancouver Sun, reported yesterday that 100 employees, or nearly half the studio's staff, had been laid off by Activision Blizzard. A Radical human resources rep told the paper that two of the studio's four in-development projects had been canceled, and the workforce was trimmed proportionately. (Activision has previously said that two high-profile Radical franchises--Crash Bandicoot and Prototype--would be retained by the company.)

As for High Moon, Gamasutra is reporting that the studio shed as many as 60 employees in a round of Activision Blizzard-instituted job cuts. The studio's official Web site touts a development staff of more than 150.

High Moon is best known for developing Capcom's vampire shooter Darkwatch and The Bourne Conspiracy for Vivendi subbrand Sierra. A Bourne sequel for the studio became improbable last month when it was revealed that the game rights to author Robert Ludlum's Bourne franchise had reverted back to the Ludlum estate.

Activision representatives had not returned GameSpot's requests for confirmation and comment as of press time. An attempt to call in-house media representative listed on High Moon's Web site was similarly unsuccessful, with the person answering the phone explaining that the rep no longer worked there.

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