Here's a surprise: Ubisoft has acquired DJ Hero developer FreeStyleGames from Activision. The UK-based team – which most recently made Guitar Hero Live – will be renamed Ubisoft Leamington, and will be headed up by Ubisoft Reflections chief Richard Blenkinsop. Presumably the developer will be integrated into the Ubi Sweatshop™, perhaps responsible for creating rhythm minigames for any of its future releases.
It's rare that a subsidiary gets snapped up by a competing publisher, but we believe that it's UK law to at least attempt to sell a company before shutting it down, so presumably Activision wanted out. At least this way everyone gets to keep their job and continue working on games. "We're thrilled to have their expertise within the group, and the team at Reflections are looking forward to creating great things together," Blenkinsop said.
[source blog.ubi.com]
Comments 11
Great, that's extended the credits for the next Assassion's Creed by at least 30 seconds.
@get2sammyb Look forward to the present day gameplay sections including some sick techno beats
@3Above Oh god, me too!
So what happened to Lionhead, Guerrilla Cambridge and all the other Studio's that have closed down in the UK in the past year? Surely some of those have a better track record than these for making diverse titles and in Guerrilla's case, experience in developing for VR. I would have thought they were a better proposition for a prospective buyer looking to expand their studio's.
At least these have survived the cull...
Hmm. New Just Dance spinoff coming?
@BAMozzy Lionhead did get shopped around but buyers wanted the Fable IP as well.
see, i hope there's some sort of VR DJ mix thing in the mix.
DJ hero was too expensive at release, you could buy a cheap beltdrive set of decks for the same price.
Plus I really hope we dont see a return of gimmicky plastic instruments.
Eh...didn't really care for the DJ HERO games, and since Guitar Hero Live didn't match up too well with a return, I don't get why people are trying to bring the games back. Rock Revolution, Rock Band, DJ Hero, Tony Hawk Motion Skateboard and all of these other things...too expensive and too much space being taken up by the gimmicks. Let me know when Fable gets picked up (would love to see them on the PS4) and when we finally get a new Buzz game that uses BUZZERS and no CELL PHONES (Which the cellphone reason is why I don't care for the new Jack Box Party Packs and Sing Star).
DJ Hero open world coming soon. Wander across an epic landscape where you will:
1) Complete missions where you need to DJ by keeping time with the music. Encounter familar character archtypes, average dialogue and just enough bewbs to keep teenagers interested while keeping time with the music.
2) Complete copy and paste side missions where you need to DJ by keeping time with the music.
3) Explore the whole world and retrieve billions of collectibles by keeping time with the music
4) Slowly upgrade your DJ skills by keeping time with the music.
5) Get a free (paid) sneak preview of DJ Hero Primal where you will do the above but with some wooden bongos.
I'm kidding, always glad that jobs have been kept and this wasn't a slight on the studio's output at all.
Nice to see a studio will stay open, thank you Ubisoft for keep video games business going in the UK.
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