Many game studios are being dropped following a bit of an economic downturn in the United States and globally. Activision has to deal with being agile enough to survive the economic times like anyone else and has dropped a few games that had great potential.
Gamers continue to ask the question, “why?” when some of their highest potential games were dropped to the floor. Ghostbusters and Brütal Legend are a couple examples of games with eager fans already salivating prior to its launch. Some of these fans are a bit ticked off that Activision named them as dropped franchise opportunities.
People ask why a company holds one “mediocre” title while getting rid of other potentially awesome ones. Don’t forget, this is a business and a good studio/publisher is going to make good business decisions without emotional attachments – those that bring emotions into play may end up with a highly valued product (to them) with no additional potential and lower revenue. This isn’t to say developers cannot be passionate about their games and their industry, they just have to build games gamers will buy and continue to fall in love with release after release.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is one of these business savvy individuals who knows where investors will find profits for the future, and he also know how to manage employees, with the use of software like this sample pay stub for payments and more.
“[Those games] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.” (1up)
Ghostbusters is a great example of a title which could be well received and fun to play but probably wouldn’t be an exploitable franchise. The game, based on a popular movie, has limited potential for yearly releases and huge franchise success. Ghostbusters fans would probably disagree, but that’s when emotion comes into play. Think dollars and cents, not awesome fun gaming.
Oddly enough many of these business decisions from Activision, Electronic Arts and other big publishers arrive when the economy is in free fall and investors are eying your revenue potential. People make their most important and, usually, unfriendly business decisions when their company is at risk.
It’s sad to think money comes first and entertainment value comes second but we’re not the ones trying to make a profitable living in the industry. Put yourself in Kotick’s shoes as he walks into a board meeting to discuss future plans, road maps and profitability – you’d do what you have to do to keep your job, right?
@Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games:
Buying other companies/teams that have potential is sometimes easier (and more profitable) to do.
Everybody does that: the “Narbacular Drop” team developed Portal after being hired by Valve.
@Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on:
… so it’ll be a sort of Duke Nukem?
Dunno about this … if the location/universe is compelling enough, you can use different protagonists (see STALKER).
Then again, you have Serious Sam, Duke Nukem and Snake …
@PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
yeah, they can’t afford to put a cell processor in it.
Jonah, the rear touch pad can act as a universal button.
@Netflix takes aim at usage based billing:
The fault lies with ISPs that don’t want to improve their infrastructure. At some point, while the existing ISPs increase fees, I can see new ones, with a modern infrastructure, coming in and killing the existing ones.
@Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3?s multiplayer:
It’s hard to find all glitches … some of them get discovered months after release.
@QOTW:
Dunno. Define old. If 2001 is old, then “Codename: Outbreak”. Its game mechanics were more advanced than the graphics it had, so I can see a remake of it having a bit of success.
If you mean older than 2001, then I would go ahead and say none. The reason is that the game mechanics evolved in time, and older games may be a bit too bad in that department. As an example of that, see Doom => Doom 3.
And yes, I am choosing only from FPS-es, because that’s what I like best.
Only Master Chief – I’m glad about this decision. I bought Halo : Reach and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the same as playing as Master Chief. Halo is very non-realistic, as I’m sure most people know, so when I played Reach and I found that defensive play was a better strategy, it took out some of the fun for me. I play on Legendary however so maybe the fact that I died easier made me more defensive. Nonetheless, I still think that playing as the last Spartan is really what makes the game.
Vita – I am going to agree with Jonah about the rear touch-screen, seems unnecessary and will only drive the price up. However, it could be used in many more ways that may make the system a big hit.
Netflix – If Netflix wants to make more money, good for them. They are a business and can do whatever they like with it. I can’t remember who said it but the existing customers will most likely look at the extra eight or nine dollars, shrug their shoulders, and pay the extra.
Glitcher Hired for MW3 – I’m glad that he has extra time to find glitches in the Multiplayer maps. The past couple games (excluding Black Ops) have been riddled with hacks and glitches that nearly ruined the online experience. Modern Warfare 2 was probably the game that suffered the most from it, so its nice to see that Infinity Ward is trying to take care of this one better. With that said, they did lose about half their staff during the year that MW2 was out, so patches for exploits probably weren’t to easy to put out. Back to MW3, even though he will find some glitches, there will always be new ones popping up for the year that it is out.
QOTW – @Herr Alien, I believe old was described as 1995 and older. I would like to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time remade. They did recently remake it, however the general consensus was that there wasn’t enough there to be a valid remake. I agree with that statement and I think it would be really nice to see this game done again, but better. I can always go back and play it on the SNES and still enjoy it, so I am not dying for a remake, but it would be nice.
On a side note, Zynga did make a play for Popcap.
Hiya Fellas,
First, for my buddy Paul:
http://www.allowe.com/Larry/troubleshooting.htm#Cauldron
Here it is, The Black Cauldron! I fully plan on committing several hours to enjoying this after I leave work. I’m sure my wife will understand. This is from Al Lowe’s website, and he was one of the game designers– so it’s legit! BTW Paul, Leonardo WAS the best turtle. So I can’t disagree with you on that!
For the QOTW- It’s funny. When Jonah first asked the question of the week, I thought “ZELDA!”, buuuut Paul already suggested it. I guess I’d like see a remake of an old “point and click” game I used to play on the NES called, “Shadowgate”. I’m not really sure how I would like to see this done, but with today’s technology (possibly Kinect) it might be a cool idea.
Or I’d like to see Rockstar do a remake of “The Oregon Trail”. That would be nothing short of ah-, wait for it, mazing!
There have been plenty of The Oregon Trail remakes. There’s a version on Facebook, the Nintendo DSi, Wii, and even Windows Phone 7.