Deadpool development team laid off

With development on Deadpool complete, the High Moon Studios team behind the licensed title has been let go.

Activision told Kotaku that about 40 staff worldwide have been laid off, which the site believes is "most" of the team behind the action effort.

"Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process. With the completion of development on Deadpool, we are taking a reduction in staff at High Moon Studios to better align our development talent against our slate," the publisher said in a statement.

"Approximately 40 full-time employees will be impacted globally. We are offering those employees who are impacted outplacement counseling services."

This kind of mass lay off at the end of a project is common with publishers who don't use a rolling, multi-team project system, as at Ubisoft.

High Moon Studios is an in-house developer responsible for many of Activision's licensed title,s including the ambitious but almost forgotten Transformers titles.

Deadpool is expected on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime during northern summer.