And then they bought ABK. And thus acquired full ownership of several games, rendering licensing a non-issue.
And then they bought ABK. And thus acquired full ownership of several games, rendering licensing a non-issue.
For example:
Return to Caslte Wolfenstein.
There is literally no part of this game that Microsoft doesn't own 100%.
I believe the same goes for Quake 4.
The problem is not about being closed. It is about headhunting the right people and convince them to abandon their present situation and risk to work years for who? MS. Obviously MS would have to be stupid to end a studio that they have been in control for a few months now. But questions remain. Who wanted that studio? Now that Kotick is gone, who knows what he promised to the people his company headhunted to create it? Don't get me wrong, if they are pushing for it they probably have a reason, but
SlimySnake
has a point in saying that MS brutal cost cutting will have consequences. We will see, but what I am curious about is that the blog post was made by anonymous staff instead of some leader from Activision. Are they still learning to work with/under MS or are Activision not pushing their executives in the limelight by design?
Tell me where there is today certainty that you will not find yourself in situations of layoffs..... You are coming from a few weeks where UBi, TekeTwo, EA, SEGA, Square etc, etc have. Studios closed, fired people and projects canceled. And we must remember that a few months ago Sony fired people in all of its Studios.....The problem is not about being closed. It is about headhunting the right people and convince them to abandon their present situation and risk to work years for who? MS. Obviously MS would have to be stupid to end a studio that they have been in control for a few months now. But questions remain. Who wanted that studio? Now that Kotick is gone, who knows what he promised to the people his company headhunted to create it? Don't get me wrong, if they are pushing for it they probably have a reason, but
Booty wants to open up.
At the end of the day we are just gamers who work with what we read and hear. We don't know shit about what their plans are behind closed doors but it always comes out sounding messy. A lot of changes going on over there
Wouldn't it be cool if they were migrating some of the talent from arcane Austin to this new studio. Would at least be a silver lining for those guys."narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise."
Layoffs are a risk no matter where you are, but leaving a known situation for a unknown one, with volatile management in the process of being replace in the biggest acquisition in the gaming market is not really safer IMHO. I did want to present things in such a dark way, and yes all big publishers had and will have layoffs too. Remember that Larian was against being acquired by anybody because in part of those kind of risks. This is not a dig at MS, but the fact that they had made their message clear with the closure of Tango, after praising them for their work. 10 years ago, Xbox was too strict with their studios, then they changed. Now they are too focused on their statistics, and hopefully this will change too. Once again, the problem is not MS in itself, as I don't think that Xbox have problems recruting right now. But the timing is not good for me, if you see what I mean by that.
MS|XB excels at generic.
The problem isn't headhunting for developers in my honest opinion, that were promised stuff by Kottick, who is now gone. The problem is acquiring devs, who have chemistry with one another and their dev culture and process is compatible, devs who see eye to eye with one another.The problem is not about being closed. It is about headhunting the right people and convince them to abandon their present situation and risk to work years for who? MS. Obviously MS would have to be stupid to end a studio that they have been in control for a few months now. But questions remain. Who wanted that studio? Now that Kotick is gone, who knows what he promised to the people his company headhunted to create it? Don't get me wrong, if they are pushing for it they probably have a reason, but
By the time they finally release whatever they come up with it'll be tired and played out. Just a guess. I hope not, though, because it's always nice when a game hits the scene with style."narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise."
