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Disney confirms Propaganda "restructuring" led to shelving of Armada of the Damned; up to 100 layoffs reported.

The original Pirates of the Caribbean movie dealt with a crew of buccaneers suffering from an ancient curse. The upcoming action role-playing game Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned was to focus specifically on the origins of the curse and serve as a prequel of sorts to the film series.

Abandon ship!

Now it appears the game itself was cursed. Following online reports, Disney Interactive Studios confirmed the cancellation of Armada of the Damned, which was in development at Vancouver-based Propaganda Studios (Turok). The open-world title was scheduled to be released in early 2011 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, and it was to have a focus on exploration.

Unfortunately, the move sparked a wave of layoffs at Propaganda, "As a result of this decision, Disney Interactive Studios completed a restructuring of Propaganda Games, its Vancouver, BC internal studio, affecting one of the studio's two development teams," said Disney in statement. No number was given, but gaming blog Kotaku's tipsters put the total at nearly 100.

Disney was keen to point out that the layoffs had not affected Propaganda's other project. "The studio is still in active production of Tron: Evolution, the video game, which will be released on December 7, 2010, with additional DLC (downloadable content) support following the game's release," it said in a statement. The game will ship shortly before Disney's high-profile film Tron: Legacy debuts in theaters December 17.

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