Now that Activision has merged up with Blizzard all under Vivendi it’s time to consider what to do with all the additional overhead, management, internal studios and sheer amount of people working on projects within their organization. In other words, it’s time to trim the fat and get leaned out for the long haul.
This isn’t unexpected news, the only way to grow more effective as a large company is to remove some of the access baggage that can slow you down and let your competitors take control. This is a sad job which nobody takes pride in (most normal people anyway) but it could mean the difference between rising to the top and sinking like a brick.
“We are focused on improving efficiency across the combined organization and are concentrating on businesses where we have leadership positions that are aligned with Activision Publishing’s long-term corporate objectives,” Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith said in a statement. (gamespot)
It’s important to be aggressive as a large company, just like you would be as a startup company. There is a reason startup companies grow into powerful competitors that win, grow and eventually become (or be purcahsed by) larger companies.
As part of this move some staff will be migrated to new projects, persumably reporposed into other divisions or allowed to find new jobs somewhere else. This is called “realignment” by those in the management organization, and currently those up for realignment are:
- Radical Entertainment (Prototype, Crash of the Titans)
- High Moon Studios (The Bourne Conspiracy, Darkwatch).
- Massive Entertainment (World in Conflict, Ground Control)
- Swordfish Studios (50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Cold Winter)
These realignments along with other organizational changes will effect a few working game titles:
- Brutal Legend
- Ghostbusters
- Wet
- Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
- World at Conflict: Soviet Assault
- 50 Cent Blood on the Sand
- Zombie Wranglers
- Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
- Several Xbox Live Arcade titles
At this point we’re not sure which, if any, will continue to be developed under Activision and which will be sold off to other companies or retired. Surely, those money making titles will be sold off if Activision has no plans to finish them.
Again, it’s hard to consider this a bad decision. This is a decision of growth over having too many “Cooks in the kitchen” making soup. It’s better to have rock solid titles of epic proportions than a large pool of mediocre titles with minimal sales and bad reputations, and that’s why they spend a lot of time in the office working on this and having a type of office chair for long hours on a computer is really helpful in this area.
It’s not that the titles they’re questioning are necessarily bad, but are not the leading titles in their space and are should be either given a stronger team to work on them or retire them entirely. To build a stronger team with passion and direction it might be best to sell the franchise(s) to other organizations so they can do it right with time and attention to detail.
(Thanks, gamespot)
I wrote a comment to this podcast instead of playing GTA 5. I should probably get the VGRT reader’s award or something.
@EA CEO
I am in the camp who hates EA by default. I still bear a grudge for them ruining Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath and Marvel Nemesis. It will never change regardless of who runs it. But I do enjoy Battlefield and am looking forward to Battlefront so I am glad that some guy got replaced by another guy and I hope he will take the company in a bold new direction out of the shit pit it’s in.
@Sega buys Atlus
Never heard of Atlus. But I don’t expect Sega to get back in the console race. At the moment the competition is cutthroat in the market. Even an established brand like Nintendo can’t survive. Maybe Sega wants to expand it’s TV add on business. They release little boxes that have bunch of classic Sega games and are plugged into your TV. Either that or they want more MMOs.
@To mediocricity and below
Star Trek had a reboot and I didn’t even notice. I always thought Star Trek needed a reboot. It’s a very long running franchise. But I would prefer a condensed contemporary version of the original series. Not a movie where there is more shooting then actual trecking.
@Your daddie’s credit card can no longer beat Diablo
Just recently I started playing the second Diablo with a friend. I love it. Fast paced combat. Many locations. And loadsa loot. I also played the Xbox 360 demo and it was good. But not as good as 2. Combat was way to slow. On the account of auction house, I completely do not care if it is there or not. I am the type who can spend hours grinding monsters to get a good item (Monster Hunter eats my life)
@QOTW
I will answer last weeks question if it’s all the same. I live by the Russian rule of: “if it ain’t broke -don’t fix it”. I got a DSi because my original DS was falling apart. My Xbox 360 crashes evey 2 hours but I won’t get a new one as I don’t tend to play the same game for more than 2 hours anyway. I only get new hardware if i don’t already have it.
First I wanted to wish Jordan a speedy recovery from his hospital stay, I hope it wasn’t too serious.
It was nice to hear Dan on the show again!
@EA Change: Just googling to see the long history of game series ruined they have built a reputation that may be irreparable at this point. I know I’ll be getting Sims 4 for my wife and this change I hope does bring better games. The reputation is however a well earned one.
@Diablo Auction house: I think the more games that abandon the Pay to Win mechanic the better for quality games.
I’d like to end this with a question to you guys. I’m trying to figure out what is the best console for a family to play on and so far that does seem to be the Nintendo franchise. Xbox and PS seem very heavily focused on FPS and other 3D games. My wife get’s motion sickness from 3d gaming and can only play side scrollers and the like. Also I heard you saying how split screen is dead so I’m wondering what do you do when you have people that want to play the same game on the same console at the same tv?