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.
Thank you very much as always for the episode. I appreciate the work you put into every episode every week, and i am sorry,
that i can´t listenm to every episode as fast as i want to 🙁
Regarding the topics:
I played a lot of WoW (damn drug), amd since last week a loooot of MTG Arena, because the new set is out and its awesome 🙂
In addition i played some Ori and The Will of the Wisp and a lot of Last of Us 2. And of course some rounds of Jackbox Party, which was really fun!
Space Invaders:
I grew up with this, it was my first game on Atari 2600 back in the 80s 🙂
But paying so much money for a colored version … naaaarrr .. dont think so 🙂
Maybe if it will come to steam and there will be a sale 🙂
Gaming Flashback:
I never even heard of the name of the game … mhmm .. strange. But Regarding Doom: i was not able to play it back in the 90s, because the sound made me sick, i mean really sick. These bass-like sound for a longer time, made me feel like i had to puke 🙁
Shroud & Ninja & Mixer:
These guys have enough money for the rest of their lives … so .. i dont care where they will go, they will have their fans anywhere 🙂
I don´t like Mixer at all, can´t say why, but the “look and feel” is not mine. I can´t say how it was for the streamer, i am only telling my opinion as a viewer.
The only time i go on mixer, is playing JackBox party with Jonah.
SF5:
I loved to watch Street Fighter Tournaments, expecially the EVO or Capcom Cup … i don´t think that the same feelings come over with a online stream. Sadly it´s the best thing they can do right now during this situation.
And yes, SF4 was way more better than SF5 in my opinion!
Thanks again, its always fun, listening to you gus, having fun and hearing your opinion on all these topics 🙂
Stay healthy and i hope to hear from you next week.
Greetings,
Ralf