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)
Now that Blizzard feels their engine is solid, it’s time to move on to creating content for the full game. Jay Wilson, Diablo 3‘s lead designer, says the game engine is in an advance stage of completion and much of the art team has moved onto Act 2. Don’t read into that, he said game engine.
@Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
Never played it as well.
@Microsoft unveils new tablet
The tablet is quite interesting. I like the cover/keyboard that transforms the tablet into a netbook.
Damn, I probably sound like a Microsoft fan, but if I’m to buy a tablet, I’d get this one.
@Rumor: Leaked doc claims 720 launches in 2013, 3D Kinect in 2014, OnLive acquisition
Dunno about 3D. Movies are nice in it, but I have doubts about games.
Last time I tried 3D gaming I didn’t like how characters were rendered: they looked like flat pieces of cardboard. Granted, they were placed at different depths, but they were still flat.
As for OnLive, why? They already have a network, they can expand that one for game streaming rather than buy an existing one.
@May 2012 US sales down 28% over last year despite Diablo III
Meh … Romania sales never left the underground levels, so …
@Australian gamers get adults-only R18+ classification
Yaaay!!! My friend will finally be able to get games without having to resort to having them shipped and whatnot.
:O Jordan … you don’t like the keyboard mouse combo?
Somebody challenge him on Quake 3 …
Alan, high five!
QOTW: where can I get some spare time? Hiring people to do my chores does not count 😛
Naah, no question this week.
@Microsoft unveils new tablet: Eh, not really interested for this, because I know for a fact that I will never need to use it. It still looks pretty cool though.
May 2012 US sales down 28% over last year despite Diablo III: Yeah, they always pull this “SALES ARE GOING DOWN OMG THE GAMING INDUSTRY IS FAILING”, and then a few months later sales go back up again and more records are broken.
Australian gamers get adults-only R18+ classification: Good for them, I hear they also have higher-priced games there, so at least they have one bad thing that is being amended.
@Jonah: What makes you so biased against Nintendo? I swear, I have never heard you say something good about them, at least not anytime I remember. I admit I am slightly biased against other companies, but you are way too pessimistic.
Gentelmen, I am dissapoint. I thought Christmas was specifically created for playing video games. Oh yeah, some bloke was born on that day too. But that was long ago… I had a tradition for the past 5 years to play an Elder Scrolls game around 1am on the 1st of Jan. A tribute to my favourite game franchise. I lie to myself that it brings me luck ( it doesn’t).
This weeks news seem to be rather dull to my taste. A high end gadget. Leaked secret documents. An ailing industry. And Australia. Would make for a nice James Bond movie setting. But boring otherwise.
@Jordan not liking mice
I hook up my PC to the telly and play using the Xbox 360 controller. I use gamepad mapper software. I recently played through the original Fallout using the pad. Works pretty fine, although it leaves you at a disadvantage in online competitive shooters.
This week I promise not to raise Nintendo’s Private Army. I already see Dynamic calling out Jonah. Brace yourself. Nintendo is on the offensive.
@QOTW
Have any of you ever had any weird traditions related to gaming?
@My belated E3 impressions
In a word: ‘Meh’. Microsoft, Sony and EA was all just more of the same, mostly. Nothing very exciting. Ubisoft had a decent showing, but not much that appeals to me personally.
Now Nintendo? They had an awful, awful conference. I mean, only showing launch window games? Come on, you have to show why we NEED to buy this system. To be fair, the launch line-up actually looks pretty decent with Pikmin, Mario Bros, Warioware, Platinum Games’ Project P-100, etc. But only 2 of those were shown at the conference and even then, where’s the 3D Mario? Where’s Metroid? Where’s Retro’s game? Where’s a new IP? They needed to show at least one or two BIG AAA games, but they held back. And that made their conference the most disappointing of all E3 conferences.
Also Jonah, the 3DS conference overall might have been awful, but Paper Mario made it all worthwhile! 😀
@Leaked Xbox 720 rumours
I guess I could see it as being plausible, but being from 2010, a lot of the Xbox 720 details were quite vague. So whether it’s real or not doesn’t make too much difference.
@May sales down
Yeah, this gen is really wearing out its welcome. E3 showed this, with mostly just more of the same, nothing surprising. Sales are just reflecting this. We need next gen now!
@Warren Spectors comments on ‘Ultra-violence’
I don’t see why his comments are so controversial. I agree with him. There’s so much violence for the sake of violence right now, it’s the cool thing to do. You gotta have the goriest combat, the over-the-top violence, because that grabs peoples attention. ‘Woah, he just tore that guys arm off and beat him with it! Look at all the spurting blood!’ It’s pointless, juvenile and makes me embarrassed as a gamer, and it’s another reason why E3 made me sigh this year.
@Jonah
Please make sure Dan is paying attention to the show this week, since God’s and Kings will probably be distracting him 😛
Distracting Dan? It’s distracting ME. 😀
This comment is for Jordan:
1) PC users CAN have controllers to use on PC game, not just with the USB but with the now obsolete serial ports. So you are not shackled to a keyboard, I also find the mouse to be far more accurate and responsive then a thumbstick or gamepad. I find for first person games the keyboard/mouse combo to be better and for third person (like Pyschonauts) the gamepad is easier.
2) You do not need to kill the drug lord in Heavy Rain, you can let the man live. The game is about the choices your character makes you have many paths to the end and multiple endings depending on what choices your character made. You can get all “hero’s” to the end or kill them off one by one until only the Villian is left.
I agree that Heavy Rain is a very dark game and is vastly underrated because people don’t have the patience to get through the beginning controls tutorial.