Bye bye Bandicoot?
The announcement back in December 2007, which confirmed that Activision, Inc and Vivendi Games had signed a definitive agreement to combine the two companies to create the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher, has put Vivendi’s existing development projects into jeopardy, according to a report from Variety's The Cut Scene blog."I've had numerous sources tell me that development teams on all of Vivendi's games now have to essentially pitch their projects to Activision executives," explains Variety's Ben Fritz.
Once the merger takes place, Activision Blizzard will have a massive portfolio of games under their belt, including Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, StarCraft and the Diablo franchises, as well as Activision’s own AAA titles, including Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. It makes sense that once the merger takes place the company will only choose Vivendi’s AAA titles in order to maximize profits.
"Until the merger is technically complete, work proceeds as usual, but once it's over, Activision will start making some decisions. And it seems very unlikely that everything at Sierra will keep going as it has been.
Just like when a new executive teams takes over at a film studio, some projects in development get killed and others get changed as the new folks in charge start establishing their own tastes and corporate priorities," explains Fritz.
This year’s Vivendi titles, such as Ghostbusters, Prototype and World in Conflict for consoles should remain unaffected, but now that the ball is firmly in Activision’s court, any games that are currently in development by the company or future games are really going to need to be great, money-spinning titles if they’re to get approved by the Activision execs.
Will we ever see another F.E.A.R title? Is it the end for Crash Bandicoot? Are Scarface’s days numbered? And was the expensive 10-year deal that was signed with Ludlum Entertainment for the right to make video games based on the “Bourne" and "Covert One" novels even worth the paper it was printed on? All these questions and more hang in the balance for the developer.
Source :: Variety
