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)
Hi guys,been too long,ive changed career paths during and before that time.
SO the PS4 is out,what featuresdo you think will be more prominent.
make that PS4 PLANS
@Sony unveils PS4 at “See the Future”
Hey, Radeon and games DO go together. I’m using Radeon cards since 2004, and I didn’t run into any issues.
@Sony: Pre-owned game blockage “up to publishers” on PS4
Translation: we’re just going to give the publisher all the tools they need in order to block used games, so that you’ll not blame us.
Despite the fact that it’s our hardware, and we’re the guys developing those tools. Riiight …
@Fans express outrage at offline/LAN play for console version of Diablo III
Outrage? Why?
Sure, they did give PC gamers enough reasons to be upset, but outrage? I for once vote with my wallet.
@QOTW:
Heh, PlanetAVP.com, but of course.
Hey guys, long time first time 😉
@Sony unveils PS4 at “See the Future”: I really don’t understand why Paul is so upset about Sony not showing the actual console. They told us some details of the specs so what difference does it make how it looks like. Maybe it’s the PS fanboy in me speaking but I really enjoyed most the show, I like the idea of integration of the PS4 with the Vita (which I own and which is not dead as you like to say 😉 ), I like the idea of Gaikai being an integral part of the system, I like the share button, etc. The tech demos were mostly unimpressive, especially the Media Molecule Move thingy but the Quantic Dreams old man demo was amazing.
I agree that knowing the price levels of the new hardware would be nice but I understand that there are still some things to be solved on Sony part and it’s simply not reasonable to more or less guess the price at this moment.
@Sony: Pre-owned game blockage “up to publishers” on PS4: I also believe the idea of getting a re-activation code from Sony or the game publisher is a good one, if it comes to it that the games will be blocked, which I don’t think is a real threat for now. As you mentioned, the fact that people are not buying new games now doesn’t mean they will once the used game blocking is implemented. They will wait for price cuts and that’s all. It’s the same story with movie and music piracy and how much the companies are ‘losing’ due to it. They always assume that people would buy the original CD/DVD if it wasn’t available for download.
@Rumor: Microsoft revealing next-gen console in April: I wonder if we’ll see a larger difference between the XBOX720 and PS4 than in the current generation. Sony’s conference focused mainly on games while the additional content was only briefly mentioned. I don’t own an XBOX but my impression is that it puts more emphasis on that additional content (i.e. not games) and maybe the new iteration will move even more in that direction.
@QOTW:
I’m from Poland and the one magazine I’ve been subscribed to for several years has been CD Action. They always put full games on their CDs and later DVDs and the reviews and additional in-magazine materials were of high quality.
@Sony’s blind vision of future
Stayed up till 1am to watch most of the show. It was very developer centred. If you don’t get off at PC specs, it will be mostly irrelevant. PS4 has a few interesting ideas (share button) but like many others I see it as bringing up the PS to the speed of Xbox. As someone who had an Xbox 360 for 3 years before PS3, I found Sony’s console a step backwards. Crappy on-line, no integrated party system/chat and a cross-media bar which loads every time you access it. PS4 is effectively getting everything that Xbox 360 had in 2006. Overall, I have seen Sony’s future. And I am not tempted to be a part of it.
@New Xbox rumors
It would make sense for them to show it off in April. Sony jumped the gun to grab the spotlight before the E3. Now Microsoft has to make a move. I have high hopes for Xbox. So far the future generation looks a lot like yesterday. Fingers crossed Microsoft will impress us with it’s show. Otherwise, things are looking bleak for the console gaming.
@Fans express outrage at Diablo 3
Diablo 3 was out?
@Gamespy good bye
I tried to use it to play PC games on-line but it never worked for me. It became largely irrelevant when Steam appeared. Steam has it’s own integrated system which allows you to fail to play games on-line without exiting the game. Progress…
@QOTW
I started using Gamespot around 2005. Since I was poor, I would only buy games after ensuring they are good i.e reading reviews. Gamespot was a good source. Stopped me from making a lot of stupid mistakes. It is often unnecessarily harsh but I like it nevertheless. I still use it because it has a good mobile website and I can read it anywhere via 3G.
@Arthur – I wonder if the fact that you had an XBOX and I own a PS3 has something to do with the fact how we saw the conference 😉 I am excited about the specs because I don’t own a powerful PC and I’d rather had a high-end console that last 6-8-10 years than an ultra-high-end PC I need to upgrade every year or two.
I don’t know if you guys come here for post-show replies but if you do there are a couple of things I’d like to add.
@Jonah – Why do you assume that something WILL go wrong with the locking the disc to the console mechanism, if it comes, which I don’t think it will? Anyway, doing this would be like shooting yourself in the knee (with an arrow). If Sony does it and Microsoft doesn’t this is the worst think Sony could bring upon themselves. If they all do it it sounds like collusion. As far as I am concerned, I almost never buy used games and I don’t trade them in for new ones (call me sentimental… 😉 ) so I’m not that worried about all this, personally. Still, I think it’s a bad marketing direction if they are contemplating it.
@Paul – you replied that you had felt everything about the PS4 had been rushed and unprepared. I didn’t see it that way and I guess it’s just a matter of perspective. I’m 100% sure the console isn’t done yet but who cares about the hard drive size at this point? There will probably be different versions so why talk about it? Tweaking the hardware a little bit here, a little bit there is going to happen but we saw what the console can do and that’s the most important part, not the size of the drive, the number of USBs or what it comes bundled with. There will be variants and retailers will also come up with something.