While Blizzard may have staved off a total buyout and secured their creative freedoms, the long-time Sierra label was less than fortunate. Some projects could face the chop.
Sierra is no stranger to the PC or consoles but now if Activision doesn’t feel a project meets their requirements then ”they won’t likely be retained.”
Activision had initially tried to buy Blizzard outright, reports Variety’s Cut Scene.
”We talked about the opportunity to buy Blizzard and they were adamant that they loved the business and were committed to it,” Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recalled. ”They didn’t want to sell the business but would entertain other ideas.”
Sierra has a number of internal development studios including Radical, High Moon, Swordfish, and Massive. There are some big and ambitious projects in the pipeline too like Radical’s Prototype, which takes gamers across New York City as they try to unravel the ‘web of intrigue’ and fight off hordes of biological mutants and the U.S. armed forces.
”We have a very good view into which products are going to have the prospects for profits that we look for,” Kotick tells Variety. ”Which ones have the margin potential that is important to us, which can be sequelled, which have worldwide distribution potential… If projects or business units don’t meed our requirements for return to our shareholders and our profitability and operating margin targets consistent with our historical performance, they won’t likely be retained.”
What of the recent Bourne game then Mr Kotick? It didn’t fare so well as people may have expected so will it get the axe on the head so soon? There’s definitely going to be some shake up with the Activision Blizzard merger but dev teams aren’t the only ones to feel some of the pinch. Vivendi corporate staffers will likely face huge cuts as Activision management take over their new joint ant-hill.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillaume told Variety’s Ben Fritz that: ”‘One game, World of Warcraft,’ bought Activision.”
Source: VE3D
