Radical Entertainment Hit With Major Layoffs, Faces Closure

[DoctorFinger]

The recently released Prototype 2 was the top selling game in it's release month of April, but that apparently wasn't good enough for parent Activision. Today it's developer, Radical Entertainment, has been hit with massive layoffs, leaving only a skeleton crew at the studio. Activision has issued a statement about the situation.

Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP, it did not find a broad commercial audience. Radical is a very talented team of developers, however, we have explored various options for the studio, including a potential sale of the business, and have made a difficult conclusion through the consultation process that the only remaining option is a significant reduction in staff. As such, some employees will remain working for Radical Entertainment supporting other existing Activision Publishing projects, but the studio will cease development of its own games going forward.

According to the statement, the studio will remain open for the immediate future, but it's clear that even those few remaining employees won't be there for long.

The studio is best known in recent years for the Prototype series, but the studio's roots reach back to 1992, when they created a Wayne's World game. In 2005 they were acquired by Sierra, then part of Vivendi Universal. They were folded into Activision after the 2008 merger between the two game giants. While they released a pair of Prototype games this generation, they worked on three other titles which were canceled by Activision: Scarface 2, a new Crash Bandicoot title, and a new IP called Trendstone.

Source - Gamasutra

[Wilkz07]

get a hit series like prototype and then get shut down. seems like that is the new trend.

hopefully 343 Industries gets out all 3 new halo games before they get shit-canned.

[Zecon]

Originally Posted by Wilkz07

get a hit series like prototype and then get shut down. seems like that is the new trend.

hopefully 343 Industries gets out all 3 new halo games before they get shit-canned.

I wouldn't exactly call Prototype a "hit" series.
But I really enjoyed them.
It's sad that it didn't do better, and I wonder what would have happened had Infamous not come out right before it.

[Darkmatter]

How many sales did they have on Prototype 2?

[Lint of Death]

Ooh, maybe they'll get a half-billion dollar settlement, too! There's nothing I like about Activision-Blizzard lately.

[Kelegacy]

It's Activision, they've closed like 10 studios this generation alone. Big surprise there. Worst publisher ever.

[MagGnome]

Another failure of the AAA, publisher-funded system.

These announcements are sad, but they are hardly surprising anymore. The indie and mobile markets are growing while the so-called "AAA" market is eating itself alive.

It's nice that Activision has taken over EA's role of shuttering studios. They'll never screw over nearly as many great developers as EA did, but they will still leave their own special mark on the gaming industry.

[OldJadedGamer]

Of course, it's Activision. They could shut down another studio tomorrow and it wouldn't shock me. All they are is Call of Duty and Blizzard games now.

They are a shit stain on the entire industry.

[Deadend]

Originally Posted by OldJadedGamer

Of course, it's Activision. They could shut down another studio tomorrow and it wouldn't shock me. All they are is Call of Duty and Blizzard games now.

They are a shit stain on the entire industry.

Don't forget movie-tie in games. Don't EVER forget that.

Should have called it "Call of Duty: Prototype 2" make BANK.

Because every time Activision wins, it seems to prove that Bobby Kotick's cynical stance on, well everything is right.

[Zigballistic]

Pretty sad when a company can push out something above average and it gets shuttered cause its not pushing multi million dollar sales and >90 score on metacritic. Too bad movie studios aren't half as dependent on numbers or I might not have to suffer Fox ruining yet another franchise.

[biosc1]

I remember how hard EA tried to suck developers from them back in the late 90s early 00s. EA bought advertising on billboards next to the office with a "come work for us, we're better" content. It was actually pretty funny.

Nowadays, though, driving past the place, you barely new it was there. They used to take up the whole building and had a huge sign up. Now, I can't even see their sign when I drive by. I actually thought they were gone already.

[National Kato]

I really enjoyed Prototype 2. Much better than the first, and one of the few games that allow you to be an evil superhero. It was a lot of fun.

[Xerxes]

Dang. I was planning on getting the PC version too.

What's fucked up. This isn't THQ. This isn't 38. They aren't hurting for money. So Prototype didn't perform the way you had hoped. There was no other project they could have gotten in on. Most my the complaints I ever heard about the series was the complexity design in the first game. Nothing technical. Both game were polished well enough. It's not like a shit team either. This is basically firing folks for the fuck off it.

[Orca]

Originally Posted by OldJadedGamer

Of course, it's Activision. They could shut down another studio tomorrow and it wouldn't shock me. All they are is Call of Duty and Blizzard games now.

They are a shit stain on the entire industry.

They have 12 internal studios still in operation (13 if we count the largely shuttered Radical as a studio still) and six of them are working on Call of Duty games in some fashion.

[DarkDay]

Activision-Blizzard. diablo and all things good killers..... rip

[Savok]

I'm curious as to their definition of "broad commercial audience".

[menage]

I never got why activision was still bothering with Prototype. Don't get me wrong but this was just bound to happen. Not because of the quality, but just because acti doesn't care about games which don't sell 10 million.

That's until nobody gives a shit about cod anymore of course. And that steak is bound to stop sometimes.

[Orca]

Originally Posted by Savok

I'm curious as to their definition of "broad commercial audience".

More than 200,000 sales in the first month of NPD, I'm guessing. It was at the top of April's NPD charts, which looks good but it was under 240,000 units sold, and that's combined PS3/360.

They spent a lot on that sequel, both in development and marketing. They obviously hoped to hit on a franchise they could rely on and just as obviously didn't hit that mark.

[Lint of Death]

Originally Posted by OldJadedGamer

Of course, it's Activision. They could shut down another studio tomorrow and it wouldn't shock me. All they are is Call of Duty and Blizzard games now.

And they even shuttered/fucked over their CoD devs!

[Narradisall]

Reading a bit on this is does seem like a shitty decision. Prototype 2 seemed to be a moderate sucess, nothing groundbreaking, but certainly not worth shitcanning the studio for.

I foresee some horrid cycle developing, where the AAA market dies out slowly, while the indie markets starts to develop and grow, then the indie developers will end up getting bought up and making AAA titles and the cycle will continue...