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Punished Miku
Member
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Being a Blizzard support studio is only marginally better than being a COD support studio.
This sucks. Once the acquisition goes through, Spencer needs to split them back out and let them work on THPS 3+4 and more ground-up remakes of classics. The work they did on THPS1+2 and Crash 1-3 was fantastic.
This sucks. Once the acquisition goes through, Spencer needs to split them back out and let them work on THPS 3+4 and more ground-up remakes of classics. The work they did on THPS1+2 and Crash 1-3 was fantastic.
Swift_Star
Banned
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Specifically says "Blizzard games" and links to the Blizzard Twitter, though, not Actiblizz Twitter.
IMO after Diablo 2 they probably realised that Blizzard needs all the help they can get with upcoming projects, people are going to buy COD games regardless and it sounds like we're going to start finally seeing less COD anyway.
Fart Knight
Al Pachinko, Konami President
Phil will make it happen.
Leyasu
Banned
I can’t see Microsoft sitting on all that talent and I.Ps either. They will imo free up teams to work on other things.
As to cod, imo they will move away from yearly release’s. Use warzone as the cash cow, keep infinity ward and treyarch on a 4yr dev cycle, with a new mainline game every 2 yrs
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Morrowind Remake let’s go Phil
Shifty
Member
Ghost of Caelid
Banned
Can Phil unmerge them please.
Varteras
Gold Member
Man, all of those studios have been so fucked over by that management for so long. Blizzard being bled dry of any magic it had and the talent that made it went running for the hills. Pretty much every damn studio directly under Activision being made to work on Call of Duty just to make sure it got out every year. Studios clearly talented enough to make their own games being relegated to support roles. That's not even including the shitty work environments. This company is a damn mess that is going to take years to sort out. Even Phil admitted it's a lot to take in and prepare for. He's not even sure he's ready for it. He needs to be up to the challenge, though. The people still there who are making these assholes billions deserve better treatment.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Vicarious Visions could be MS remake studio. They are really talented. There’s so many games they could go back to now that they own Bethesda as well.
Ghost of Caelid
Banned
Yes, Fallout 3 needs a remake.
Papacheeks
Banned
Sucks a lot of the studio heads and higher tier talent left VV after they forced them to be a support studio.
Fuck Activision.
Fuck Activision.
.Pennywise
Banned
Anything not remaster/remake please, ty
DavidGzz
Member
Pretty fresh coming from the 2017 remake Pennywise.
Javthusiast
Banned
Becoming some support studio, never giving us Tony Hawk 3&4 remakes plus more. Fuck ActiBlizz.
yurinka
Member
I don't know about Diablo II, but they did a great job with the Crash & Tony Hawk remakes, and before that doing Skylanders games for kids. They are very talented.
Now in Blizzard I assume won't be the case, but let's hope now that MS owns them they reshuffle their studios and projects and give them a Tony Hawk 3&4 remake, a brand new Tony Hawk and would put them to work with Toys for Bob to codevelop a new Crash and a new Spyro.
Now in Blizzard I assume won't be the case, but let's hope now that MS owns them they reshuffle their studios and projects and give them a Tony Hawk 3&4 remake, a brand new Tony Hawk and would put them to work with Toys for Bob to codevelop a new Crash and a new Spyro.
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tmlDan
Member
I really don't think so, with all the news coming out of their studios about them being hands off i imagine they will let Act/Blizz do their own thing and manage themselves.
The MS team can't manage all these studios efficiently if they put their hands everywhere, they will either need to hire new people in leadership production roles or let them manage themselves.
The COD take, i could see that happening but i just don't think they will tackle any new IP's for several years after the acquisition goes through. Restructuring will take at least another 4-5 years after they get power to do so.
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EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Activision games going forward will be interesting to see.
Oddvintagechap
Member
Eh I didn’t really like the Spyro & Crash remakes as much as other people did.
Leyasu
Banned
We’ll see. I don’t know about new I.Ps, but I can see crash coming back in the form of both a platformer and racer.
Banjo64
cumsessed
Unbelievably terrible news.
I am pretty dumbfounded by this decision still.
Tony Hawk 1&2, the Crash and Spyro trilogies, CTR and Crash 4 were all absolutely beautiful efforts.
The potential for these guys and Toys for Bob to tap in to the MS back catalogue of IP like Banjo, Conker, Viva Piñata and Kameo… not just remakes, they could have easily took on sequels as demonstrated with Crash 4. Or even a new and original IP. Why the fuck not?
Just terrible all round for ‘gamers’.
I am pretty dumbfounded by this decision still.
Tony Hawk 1&2, the Crash and Spyro trilogies, CTR and Crash 4 were all absolutely beautiful efforts.
The potential for these guys and Toys for Bob to tap in to the MS back catalogue of IP like Banjo, Conker, Viva Piñata and Kameo… not just remakes, they could have easily took on sequels as demonstrated with Crash 4. Or even a new and original IP. Why the fuck not?
Just terrible all round for ‘gamers’.
CamHostage
Member
I couldn't see Activision sitting on all that IPs either , but they did...
It's possible that, under Microsoft, Activision will restart its brands with new studios / new partnerships. It's also possible that Vicarious Visions really were happier under Blizzard (they have a chance still to do some interesting things for a studio that needs some rogue ops to sneak away from its own internal bureaucracy of being so big in-demand... also, VV has had to be a different company since the Bala brothers left in 2016, although they still have produced strong work.) And it's possible that Activision will move Toys for Bob back after the CoD work order and staff them up to lead new initiatives in resurrecting great back-catalog games. It's possible that this news might just be a sad but necessary step in structuring the future of Activision Blizzard, and some day down the road we'll look back and it will have worked out to be not so terrible news after all...
...But I wouldn't hold your breath hoping for good things to come from Activision.
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coffinbirth
Member
While I agree with your sentiment, they have pretty much always been a support and/or port studio. so who's to say this isn't what they actually want? I'd probably like a change of pace from THPS/Crash/Skylanders-esque Activision IP if I'd been doing it for 20+ years too.
Diablo and potentially this new "Survival" IP, which is Blizzards 1st new IP in 8 years, would probably sound rewarding to me.
I'm nobody
Member
That's just creepy calling him uncle Phil
U make him sound like a child molester lol
Leyasu
Banned
? Activision pretty much dumped everything in favour of COD. They didn't have GP to feed. We will see
I couldn't see Activision sitting on all that IPs either , but they did...
Black_Stride
do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
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CamHostage
Member
Maybe, but Activision under Microsoft will still maintain its bottom line for itself, not for the conglomeration. Microsoft acquired Activision, but it did not absorb Activision; it is still its own publisher. And if the business that's good for Activision was and is COD, then they will still put everything they need to into COD, unless Microsoft moves money into Activision for them to do otherwise.
What might make better sense in a weird business-angle way (and what might be a reason why Vicarious Visions completed this merge-in, despite the MS acquisition outlining potentially different growth opportunities for Activision that might have reversed the course) would be for Microsoft to sublicense some of these brands and produce Xbox games with studios it has connections with, under a shared MS/Activision banner. They would feed GP, and Acti would still continue unabated in whipping away in the COD mines to keep that franchise lucrative. It'd be a strange work-around, but Activision itself is so narrowmindely focused on COD that I imagine it'd be hard for Phil Spencer to order them to make different Activision games without Kotick pointing out that the Acti financials depend on most if not all roads leading to COD.
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freefornow
Member
Feel the same way about Nixxes. My dream of another Mad Dash Racing for Xbox has been maddingly dashed!
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Had no idea they were in Albany. What an odd location for a games studio.
Pedro Motta
Member
RIP.
II_JumPeR_I
Member
Yes
EDMIX
Member
I'm still shocked that and Oblivion never got remakes or remasters.
I get Skyrim is more popular, but I don't see a reason to have left money on the table with that. If a market exist for a Skyrim remaster, I'm sure one exist for a Fallout 3, NV and Oblivion one.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
I mentioned this elsewhere, but do people understand Blizzard has a brand new IP that appears to be a vibrant fantasy hero title with a seemingly stylistic approach with a modern day sportsy kinda crossover? They even have what appears to be a sport racing bicycle in the artwork.
Call me crazy, but this doesn't entirely look out of place for Vicarious Visions.
Call me crazy, but this doesn't entirely look out of place for Vicarious Visions.
Leyasu
Banned
Are you sure? Kotick, the board and all of the shareholders will be gone. Microsoft will funding everything once the deal goes through.
I am not saying that either of us is right or wrong, but given Microsofts need for content, I really don't see them carrying on with the current COD only model. The last COD that I played was cold war, and that had about 5 or 6 studios working on it according to the splash screen. Studios that could be making their own games.
Anyway, as I said, we will see.
CamHostage
Member
I haven't read up on this much because Activision itself lost me completely with the one-two punch of reassigning Toys for Bob and merging Vicarious Visions, but as I understand it...
Activision will remain after Microsoft buys them, the publisher won't just become a set of studios for Xbox Games. It'll still have its own profit margins to maintain, and much like Bethesda is now, its business in publishing will still be in a number of markets (although ultimately, their new boss Phil Spencer will want Xbox services to be the prime and sometimes if not exclusive target audience for Activision, Blizzard, and King products.) Kotick is officially listed to be staying (although unofficially, his presence is poisoning the deal and he probably has an exit scenario worked out,) and I don't know what's up with the board or shareholders but Activision will have its own CEO even as it reports to the Microsoft Gaming CEO.
