Activision closes 7 Studios

The bodycount from Activision's house-cleaning exercise yesterday continues to mount up, with LA-based 7 Studios the latest confirmed dead.

A Tweet from staffer Alex Victory, spotted by Joystiq, read, "Activision is shutting down the Guitar Hero business as of today. This includes my studio. Anyone know of any open associate producer jobs?"

Creative director Dan Lehrich later chimed in on his own feed, adding, "Lame day, but I'm optimistic about the future & wish the best to all my current/former colleagues. Good luck to all, let me know if I can help."

7 Studios was set up in 1999 and cut its teeth on a string of movie tie-ins, including Fantastic Four, Shrek the Third and Napoleon Dynamite. It was purchased by Activision in 2009, while half way through development on Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

The publisher of that game, Genius Products, then launched a legal action against Activision, claiming the buy-out was "clearly an attempt to prevent the game from getting to market ahead of its own prospective game" and a "misappropriation of trade secrets".

Soon after all that blew over, Activision made half of the studio redundant.

It's not entirely clear exactly what role the remaining employees had been performing since then, although it's thought the developer provided additional support on DJ Hero 2 and the Guitar Hero franchise.