Kotaku is reporting that Activision will be cutting back the staffs of Luxoflux and Neversoft in response to recent budgetary concerns. Luxoflux, responsible most recently for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, has already seen more than fifty people sent home permanently. Neversoft, who you may know as the heir apparent to the Guitar Hero dynasty, is rumored to have had about double that number taken off the payroll. While some of the staff members have been shifted to other in-house development teams, the news comes as a bit of a surprise.

Whether or not these cuts are a result of Activision's decision to refocus their music line to ten SKUs down from 2009's twenty-five is unknown, but it is clear from this statement that something is afoot.

"Activision Publishing continually evaluates its resources to ensure that they are properly matched against its product slate and strategic goals. In 2010, the company's sku count will be smaller than in 2009 driven in part, by a decrease in the number of music-based games we will be releasing."

Continually evaluating resources? I mean, I knew Activision was all about the bottom line, but damn is that cold. Even though I haven't been the biggest fan of some of Neversoft's more recent efforts, the Guitar Hero games have actually gone through a bit of a revival with the release of Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5, and it looked like the developer was finally taking steps in the right direction to make a truly quality music game. I don't think I've ever played a Luxoflux game in my life, so I can't say for certain whether or not these mass layoffs are deserved or not.

It did seem like we were finally coming out of the terrible times a few months ago when publishers were laying off people left and right, and developers were closing shop after one slip up. Hopefully this occurence isn't the beginning of another rash of corporate restructuring maneuvers, and all those who've been affected will land on their feet.