Ubisoft swipes Guitar Hero developer FreeStyleGames from Activision

They’re now Ubisoft Leamington

Guitar Hero Live was a fantastic rhyhtm game that breathed new life into the genre for me after nearly a decade of safe plays from developers like Harmonix. But a lot of things were going against it — the “live” gimmick was off-putting for some, you had to buy all new hardware (something Harmonix is still dealing with), it had microtransactions, and the Guitar Hero name had already been dragged so far through the mud it was tough to come back.

But come back the developer shall, as they’ve been pulled into an all new publisher. Ubisoft has announced that they’ve acquired developer FreeStyleGames, and they don’t even have to move house, as the Leamington, UK based studio is now “Ubisoft Leamington.” My guess? Guitar Hero is gone for good, but Ubisoft’s own Rocksmith IP has a long life ahead of it.

Richard Blenkinsop heads up Reflections and new Leamington Studio [Ubisoft]