Raven winged by layoffs

Activision has confirmed that its Madison, Wisconsin-based studio Raven has been hit by job cuts. According to a corporate spokesperson, roughly 20 people have been laid off from the studio following the release of its time-bending shooter Singularity this summer.

"With the recent completion of Singularity, Raven Software is realigning its workforce to better reflect the studio's upcoming slate," a corporate spokesperson told GameSpot.

Raven had been rumored to be working on DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops, the reportedly preorder-record-breaking game from another internal Activision studio, Treyarch. The layoffs come just over one year after Activision laid off nearly three dozen developers from Raven after it completed work on another shooter, Wolfenstein.

In Singularity, gamers play as Nate, an air force pilot who, in the early parts of the game, is scrambled to investigate some strange happenings on an island off the coast of Russia. After Nate's plane crashes, he discovers a mysterious time-manipulation device and must use it to unlock the mysteries of the island while staying alive in the process. Oddly enough, the device also effects time-traveling complications where the game bounces between 2010 and 1950.

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Singularity.