A Variety report says unrest is growing at Vivendi Games' Sierra label because all of its titles will soon have to be pitched to new corporate masters at Activision.
"Development teams on all of Vivendi's games now have to essentially pitch their projects to Activision executives," writes Ben Fritz, who cites numerous sources in a report onVariety's The Cut Scene blog.
"Until the merger is technically complete, work proceeds as usual, but once it's over, Activision will start making some decisions. And it seems very unlikely that everything at Sierra will keep going as it has been.
"Just like when a new executive team takes over at a film studio, some projects in development get killed and others get changed as the new folks in charge start establishing their own tastes and corporate priorities."
Fritz writes that World of Warcraft developer Blizzard, and games due out this year such as The Bourne Conspiracy, Prototype and Ghostbusters will not be subject to interference, but those in development for 2009 may be dispensable.
"Activision obviously made the deal to get its hands on the biggest MMO, and really the biggest game, in the industry. Everything else is basically an afterthought. Which leaves all of those making the afterthoughts in an uncertain position.
"It's all in Activision's hands now. Which leaves some nervous developers at Sierra."
Mar 20, 2008
