Activision close Radical Entertainment

[Dark Drakan]

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Activision have issued a statement saying that Radical Entertainment will no longer be developing its own games and will instead have to reduce its staff count and assume a support role on other Activision projects. ​

Official Statement​

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Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP, it did not find a broad commercial audience. Radical is a very talented team of developers, however, we have explored various options for the studio, including a potential sale of the business, and have made a difficult conclusion through the consultation process that the only remaining option is a significant reduction in staff. As such, some employees will remain working for Radical Entertainment supporting other existing Activision Publishing projects, but the studio will cease development of its own games going forward.​

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[Tsuyu]

We are Electroni- I mean Activision.

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

 

[Angel]

Activision suck.

That is all.

 

[Dark Drakan]

If your not Call Of Duty or another franchise they can milk to death they will make their money and close you down. They did it with Guitar Hero too, milked it until people were sick of it and oversaturated the market then shut the studio down.

 

[Angel]

They don't give a monkey's about their PC customers either. They release games late or with less functionality and features than console platforms, watch people leave in droves out of disgust and then bleat that PC games aren't commercially viable any more.

What a load of cobblers.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I never liked Prototype anyway. I always saw it as an average game, which had its own ambitions, but it was far from being a good game.

The first had potential but yeah id say it was distinctly average, I didnt purchase or play the sequel though so cant pass personal judgement on that. They always struck me as pretty middle ground titles that didnt try to be anything above an average game.

 

[Gikoku]

So they see a studio is making games that aren't mainstream and shut them down, extracting the remains to force them to make recycled garbage. One day Call of Duty will be all they have left, and nobody is going to want to buy it anymore. Dumb de dumb dumb dumb.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Therefore, why they would be paying them more? It makes sense the studio closed down.

They did try to do something different though and made controversial choices with the story and the villian switch idea. At least they were trying new things and not simply recycling the same game over and over. Maybe they didnt make the money back that Activision put into it but maybe Activision should have let them move to another project after Prototype instead of funding it just because they wanted it to compete with Infamous and maybe create a new brand.

 

[Gikoku]

You forget that the game industry is a business and only mainstream games survive well.

I don't forget, it's just sad that the industry has been led to believe that such a way is the only way. When it isn't. Activision is nothing but a greedy shark, and rather than attempting to improve these studios they instead kill them and pick apart the remains to help aim for a desired goal that isn't much better.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Exactly, they didn't want to fund it anymore, it was a lost fight. Who knows, maybe that money will go for a new game? I doubt that they are stupid to the point to rely on Call of Duty for too long. Sure it's mainstream, but don't forget that there are game designers along with many other people that complete the structure of Activision-Blizzard.

Maybe it will but it wont be developed by them, they will just have to be the backline support for another studio so most of them will lose their jobs. Activision are a business before a developer and they seem to rely on some franchises and milk them year after year and alienate the developers who work for them (Infinity Ward). They run them into the ground and leech all the money from them then kick them out on their arse when they are done.

The only way to stop a greedy shark is not to feed it, but no matter how people act as if they don't like their games they keep buying more and more of them.

Activision know this which is why they not only have charged more for their games in the past they charge huge amounts for DLC/Map Packs and have most games including premium services now to increase cost again.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Welcome to the world of business. You either lick boots or do your job or you get fired. Unless you have the resources to do your bidding.

EA did this years ago and were the same as Activision are now but they have since changed quite a bit and for this Activision will never catch them. For as much as Activision want to beat EA they never will so long as they dont fund new IP's and offer free content more and reward gamers with systems instead of charging people extra for bonuses. Some developers have started to move away from Activision and we have all seen the Infinity Ward situation and people jumping ship. EA are still making huge profits and are a massive business but they have still managed it without being such a money grabbing corporation as they once were and seen the error of their ways.

 

[Gikoku]

The only way to stop a greedy shark is not to feed it, but no matter how people act as if they don't like their games they keep buying more and more of them.

Right, mostly kids and teenagers who continue to buy it because of their friends or because they don't know any better. But consumer stupidity doesn't excuse Activision for their ruthless business decisions, I mean even Electronic Arts who was once considered the devil of the industry isn't nearly this bad and doesn't resort to such harsh actions anymore and yet they're doing just fine financially.

 

[Dark Drakan]

That's true, but you or I don't know what Activision-Blizzard is doing internally, for all we know right now it's trying to milk COD.

They have been trying to milk COD for years, I think even they were suprised that its still selling in the numbers it is. They said they would love to add a Premium service for years but then backtracked and said they never would then ended up adding one. I think they are using it as a final throw of the dice and seeing how much more they can make from the franchise before it goes down the Guitar Hero route.

Most executives are money mongrels, nothing more.

2 Words Bobby Kotick

Few know how to be decent and keep making huge profits.

True and the reason im happy to spend money on titles that offer lots of content for the money or free incentives and developers who take a lot of time and effort to please fans of all platforms. CD Projekt are one of those developers and they have done well with The Witcher series so far and the new Enhanced Edition, more developers should follow their example in the industry. Rockstar also offer a lot of bang for your buck with content releases, updates and continued support too.