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)
Interesting, the dynamics of the group didn’t change a lot.
@Wasteland: Fallout as the spiritual of Wasteland? It makes a bit of sense; when you started to describe the game I scrolled up again: I initially thought you were describing the wrong game 🙂
@Dashboard update gives Indie Marketplace more visibility
I wonder, is it that the indies managed to pull enough money to actually deserve the extra visibility? And by ‘deserve’ I don’t mean the politically correct version of deserve.
If you ask me, the answer is yes, they do manage to pull in cash.
… :O Baby Makers Extreme had a sequel?!
@Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 outed by Amazon France:
Activision canceled advertising campaigns on that site? Really? Didn’t the tabloid stars teach them that is bad to f**k the press?
@Electronic Arts terminates “free Battlefield 3 for preordering Mass Effect 3” deal early
Hmm … I bet it is an exploit. Dice is just the developer, it’s the publisher that calls the shots on what and how gets sold, so I don’t think it was Dice who got upset.
I say it is an exploit.
@Alan Wake on PC because Remedy “a nagging little kid” to Microsoft
Hmm, lemme guess, they [devs] caved in and opted for an XBox exclusive for a little extra cash from Microsoft. Now they ran out of that said cash and they need to make more sales …
I liked the Max Payne games and I was quite excited about the game when it was announced. Now … meh … bad decisions have their consequences, and I think the devs will feel that. I mean there is a reason why others release their games AT THE SAME TIME ON ALL PLATFORMS, not two years later.
Regarding the question of the week, I’m not in for the pixie diamonds.
The Duck Tales games for NES (both of them) are very good. They even kept the TV series theme song in the first game (thanks for that ending, by the way).
It really was like Paul never really left! I guess you don’t need even need him after all! Paul kind of annoys me sometimes, especially when he’s whining about something.
About Mass Effect 3, I was actually playing the multiplayer demo while I was listening to the podcast and I think it is great. About the animations and such: I noticed them too, but what do you expect out of a demo! I also noticed some improvements over Mass Effect 2, but most of them were minor.
-.- Pixie Diamonds, whatever. (No offense, Paul)
Oh and by the way Paul, I was kidding, it wasn’t actually hate mail at the beginning.
It’s been ages since I’ve commented, but that was a really great show! This episode and the original crew episode are two of my favourite eps in a long time… and neither of them featured Paul! Isn’t that telling? (How’s that for hate mail?) 😛
I happen to be a fan of Polycast, so hearing Dan on the show was a very nice surprise. It’d be great to have him on again sometime! (Btw Jonah, I seem to recall you making a guest appearance on Polycast a while ago. Am I remembering correctly?)
@Alan Wake on PC due to Remedy nagging Microsoft
I always find it interesting to hear details of the relationship between a Dev and a Publisher. I find the Retro Studios/Nintendo relationship quite interesting, since although Retro are a very successful and acclaimed studio, Nintendo seems to be very controlling of them.
But even more interesting is the Rare/Microsoft relationship, given the Rare staff leaving and speaking out against Microsoft, etc. It’s sad to see what Rare has become these days though 🙁
@QOTW
To be honest, Disney didn’t feature that heavily in my childhood. I do love Pixar though and they’re part of Disney. They don’t really do ‘Princes and Heroes’ though. So maybe Aladdin then? He was a hero I guess and pretended to be a Prince for a while too!
thank you Paul for not showing up in this podcast, i was away from internet connection for roughly a month and when i heard the 1st VGRT contest i was very sad because i didn’t got the chance to answer and now i got a 2nd chance. TY
@indie dashboard XBL
microsoft fixed the problem because indie games are money makers. simple as that. the proof is baby maker extreme 2, you just said that
@Mass effect + free bf3 no more
idk if it was a exploit on the buggy origin software but bf3 is still selling as crazy (unlike the Vita – you stopped giving weekly selling numbers, i was amused by that…) the “useful selling time” of bf3 is yet to be reached.
@QOTW (oh boy, must acquire fictitious currency)
the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
he is awesome dude!
he might have been friendzoned as hell but he is the king!!!! not only because he s the king, but he has the atributes to be the best king with includes a pure heart even after a public humiliation from the entire kingdom, just, no heartfeelings bro Q.Q
he is epic
@Duck tales
when you mentioned duck tales for the NES, this came to mind instantly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPkhhLC1tf8
MOON THEME EPICNESS AT IT FINEST
ops almost forgot!
Derek, Jennifer, DonDon, nice to listen to your voices again! good ol’days back
my heart is with you and your son in the battle against cancer!!!
I just wanted to mention that there are games for XBLIG that are excellent besides I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1. One of my very favorite games from last year was Escape Goat (an excellent puzzle-platformer with very nice pixel art) and there’s also Curse of the Crescent Isle (a Mario 2 style platformer), T.E.C. 3001 (a 3-d freerunner with a very professional presentation and addictive gameplay), as well as many others. Yes, you do have to wade through countless flash game knock offs such as the baby launching game mentioned on the cast, but there are genuine gems to be found.
Jonah was a guest on PolyCast Episode 118 last year, as well as the show’s newest edition — Episode 141 — released yesterday:
http://thepolycast.net/polycast/season5.php#episode118
http://thepolycast.net/polycast/season6.php#episode141