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Raven Hit By Layoffs, Some Point to Lackluster Wolfenstein Sales

By Brian Crecente (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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Raven Software, developers of recently released Wolfenstein and soon to be released Singluarlity, let 30 to 35 go from their Wisconsin studios, sources tell Kotaku.

In a prepared statement released to Kotaku today, Activision confirmed that Raven, a subsidiary of the company, had laid people off today, but declined to confirm or deny the number of people impacted.

"With the recent completion of both X-Men Origins Wolverine, based on the summer blockbuster movie, and Wolfenstein, the next chapter of the famed franchise, Raven Software is slightly reducing its workforce to better reflect the studios upcoming slate," the Activision statement read.

But our sources tell us that the layoffs were the aftermath of an over-budget and under-performing Wolfenstein and the delay of upcoming time-shifting shooter Singluarity.

The delay for Singularity, which was pushed back from a holiday release to sometime next year, forced Raven Software to move members on the Wolverine team to the project to help reduce the delay, we are told.

The shift in personnel, increased expenses and lackluster sales led Raven to drop from a three game team studio to a two game studio, our sources say.

Thats sad. Wolverine was hella-fun. Wolfenstien is no different. Great single player and solid MP.

Just shows that gameplay really doesn't matter much anymore. Unless you are workign with top notch visuals, you won't get any attention from the industry and games will suffer.

There is always the Wii...and party games for companies that cant produce the industry leading visuals.