Radical Entertainment Goes Under

[80Maxwell08]

Just standard Activision operating procedure.

If Activision owns your dev studio there's going to be one game that doesn't hit 5 million + sales and get a 90+ on metacritic, and you're going to get fired for it.

I'm pretty sure that was EA who made the 5 million sales and 90+ metacritic across the board statements, lay the out of touch douche-bag credit where it's due. Still, it does suck that they're getting the axe after just one game doesn't meet expectations.

Except Activision has operated like that way before EA said they were going to operate like that. They've thrown out plenty of projects because they can't repeatedly milk them year after year (research Brutal Legend for an example). Kotick, the head of Activision, said on multiple occassions he wanted to take the fun out of gaming and wanted to increase the price of games on several occassions. I know they hold their own developers to absurd standards and will kill them off if they don't end up as the next Call of Duty. I wish I remembered which game was this but one of the developers said they would only get a bonus if they got a 90+ metacritic score. Like AC10 said this is standard Activision.

 

[80Maxwell08]

I wish I remembered which game was this but one of the developers said they would only get a bonus if they got a 90+ metacritic score. Like AC10 said this is standard Activision.

Fallout: New Vegas

but the guilty party was Bethesda not Activision.

they are all as bad as each other though.

No this wasn't that. F:NV was 85+. I think the game was Call of Duty and the devs were the 2 who left after MW2 but I don't remember the game.
EDIT: Ok found it. It wasn't CoD but it was Bungie's new game. They will get a 2.5 million bonus if they get 90+ metacritic.
http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474970

 

[JdaS]

Not gonna lie, I'm pissed about this. While they were far from perfect, both Prototype games were some of the most fun I've ever had with a controller in my hands.

I just hope that these guys can go on to make something awesome in the future.

Also, well done Activision, for letting go the only people who made me buy your shit. *clap* *clap*

 

[cal24]

And the developers who made The Simpsons: Hit and Run are gone.

I will be anticipating the time, when the Call Of Duty franchise stops making money, just to see how Activision reacts when they realise that they shut down all of the developers, who could be making them money now.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Just standard Activision operating procedure.

If Activision owns your dev studio there's going to be one game that doesn't hit 5 million + sales and get a 90+ on metacritic, and you're going to get fired for it.

actually, i think EA said that

anyway

on the one hand, sucks more people lost jobs

on the other

.... eh .... i'd never know who they where if they hadn't mentioned prototype

 

[The Random One]

Video games, ladies and gentleman. Where making a month's best selling game and selling possibly close to a million units over a few months means you go bankrupt.

Don't worry though, the industry is fine! Let's hire more hot women to parade in front of our demos.

 

[Warforger]

The Prototype games were meh, there was nothing wrong with them it was just they often just kept leaving you wanting more. I mean when jumping off a 20 story building and landing on a tank gets boring, something has gone wrong.

And how is Modern Warfare 3 not stiff competition?

It was released last year. Thus beating it months after it came out isn't impressive.

 

[Gizen]

Alright, so, let me get this straight. Because Prototype didn't sell as much as CoD, Acitivision has decided to shut down the studio, despite the fact that they just finished saying the guys at the studio are talented guys and they could just put the studio to work on something else. They go on to list options they had considered, including SELLING the studio for money, doing something which would get them back some of the money they spent so making money. They could make money, but have instead decided 'nah, let's just FIRE THEM ALL' (or at least most of them) instead. Really? REALLY!? I swear it's like they WANT us to hate their guts. And then people continue to work for them, people continue to sell their companies into deals with Activision, even after watching what Activision does to people, WHYYYYY!?

 

[mysecondlife]

Small developer working with large publisher whose games break sales record every year...

Sadly, this could have only ended in one way.

 

[Khanht Cope]

Just another hint toward ditching publishers for a new model being the eventual out for the dev teams and franchizes who keep getting strangled by this crap.

Where teams can live within their means, thrive on their own modest success; and job security doesn't depend on retards injecting stupid amounts of money and then firing everyone because sales growth isn't sufficiently huge during a FUCKING DEPRESSION!

 

[5t3v0]

Just standard Activision operating procedure.

If Activision owns your dev studio there's going to be one game that doesn't hit 5 million + sales and get a 90+ on metacritic, and you're going to get fired for it.

actually, i think EA said that

anyway

on the one hand, sucks more people lost jobs

on the other

.... eh .... i'd never know who they where if they hadn't mentioned prototype

No that was Activision in regards to Bungee's new title, though EA might be copying.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. EA are not evil masterminds. They are just Evilly stupid with a lot of people who fall for it. Activision are the company that are evil geniuses, They have a Shit talking CEO, then when EA starts doing the same They Quieten him up (im referring to the CoD v BF3 thing between devs that popped up last year that EA should not have stuck us BattleFanboys in, now we get compared to a "Tacticool" game all the time both inside our fandom and out...)
However they also have lacked a soul for years. They have bought devteams just to turn around and cancel the near complete games (The dev team behind True crime iirc) and need I mention the yearly CoD output, a series which has abused the notion of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and replaced it with "But keep putting it out there because it sells for little input".

EA don't deserve to hog all the negative attention. Activision, bethesda, Ubisoft (Heh, alphabetical order) have their demons too. All EA provides right now is a Emanuel Goldstein for Gamers to put all their hatred to to ignore that the whole game industry is borked.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Losing your job causes about as much stress as the passing of a loved one, so tough breaks all round there.

Land on your feet, guys.

 

[Weaver]

Just standard Activision operating procedure.

If Activision owns your dev studio there's going to be one game that doesn't hit 5 million + sales and get a 90+ on metacritic, and you're going to get fired for it.

actually, i think EA said that

anyway

on the one hand, sucks more people lost jobs

on the other

.... eh .... i'd never know who they where if they hadn't mentioned prototype

EA SAID it a few weeks ago. Activision's been DOING it for years.

 

[piinyouri]

Sad news.
Hulk Ultimate Destruction was so much fun.
Couldn't ask for more than what I got out of it.

 

[teebeeohh]

i guess this is the result of gaming lacking a middle ground, used to be smaller developers would work on a game with a smaller budget they think they needed and the publisher would just handle the publishing. today they just buy the studios, infuse them with stupid amounts of cash and expect them to make the next cod. in a recession.
the only thinks that work right now are super high profile titles like cod or whatever bioware works on and small indie titles. everything else dies because publishers just want mega titles with giant profit margins.

 

[Ruedyn]

I assume this is because Prototype 2 didn't really have an opening for a sequel? Too bad, I liked that game.

 

[unstabLized]

ANDDDDDDDDDD 10 POINTS GO TO ACTIVISION, AS THEY MAKE A GREAT COMEBACK INTO THE COMPETITION! Looks like we have a close one here folks! It's Activision and EA going head to head for the world cup of Douchebaggery!! Who will fire the most, and who will sink first! Stay tuned to find out, as EA prepares to make a great move on Activision by disbanding Dead Space!

 

[jollybarracuda]

Wow, that's really a shame. The Prototype games (2, in particular) were great, and I was hoping Radical could continue making entries in the series and build upon it's interesting concepts. Best of luck to all of them.

 

[Andy Chalk]

How do you do a year over year comparison for something that was out for one month?

You don't. They can say that it under performed or didn't meat sales expectations, but you can't do a year over year comparison. That seems idiotic to me. And how is Modern Warfare 3 not stiff competition?

That's overall sales, not just Prototype 2. So while it was at the big dog for the month, the pack as a whole was considerably smaller than it was a year before.

As for Modern Warfare 3, it was, what, five or six months old when Prototype 2 came out? Yes, it's a behemoth franchise, but it just cannot be selling its big numbers that long after launch.

 

[Lunar Templar]

EA SAID it a few weeks ago. Activision's been DOING it for years.

*shrugs* Activision almost never turns out anything worth paying attention to, thus, i ignore them almost totally

snip

evil is evil.
'mastermind' or 'idiot' status is moot since both are actively screwing customers as well as they're own studios. so i see little reason to differentiate between the two

fortunately, nether know how to make a game i want, save, like once every 5 years or so, so i don't have to give them money