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Half of Staff layed off at Radical.

R

Rapping Granny

Banned
Marke Andrews and Fiona Anderson , Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver video game company Radical Entertainment will be laying off about 100 employees, almost half of its staff, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The cut-backs stem from a decision by the company's owner -- Activision Blizzard -- to reduce the number of titles Radical produces by half.

"Activision Blizzard is committed to making the best games possible and has elected at this time to reduce the number of titles that Radical is developing from four games to two," Leah Rubin, Radical's vice-president of human resources, said in an email. "Therefore, we will be proportionately reducing the size of our studio."


The reductions come in the wake of an ownership change last month that saw France-based Vivendi, which owns Radical, and American video software company Activision, join forces as Activision Blizzard.

At the time of the merger, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told a Variety reporter that if projects didn't meet the company's requirements for return to shareholders and profitability they wouldn't be retained.

Two weeks ago, Activision Blizzard released a statement saying it would "realign staffing" at Radical Entertainment as well as at High Moon Studios, which is located in San Diego, spurring rumours that layoffs were imminent.

Radical was founded in 2001 and bought by Vivendi in 2005 for an undisclosed price. In 2007 the company hired almost 100 people, only half of whom came from British Columbia. Twelve were from other provinces and the rest came from outside Canada. The hiring spree brought the number of employees to more than 200.

Last month, Activision Blizzard said it would go ahead with five games or franchises including Radical's Crash Bandicoot, and Prototype, a new game created by Radical that will debut in 2009. Radical's hit title Scarface: The World is Yours was not listed. Rubin said Radical would be offering laid-off employees a number of tools and resources to help them find new employment.
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http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ed35053d-2e0c-4398-a1ee-fdfe733f8f3f

Sorry if old, I searched.

So can we expect Prototype late 09 release at best?
 
A

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
At the time of the merger, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told a Variety reporter that if projects didn't meet the company's requirements for return to shareholders and profitability they wouldn't be retained.
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Does that mean Activision is only going to release Guitar Hero, CoD and WOW expansions now?
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
Kydd BlaZe said:
After Haze, I kinda wish this was about Free Radical.
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:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol


Seriously though, I hope the laid off ex-radicals get good jobs.
 
A

Amon37

Member
Kydd BlaZe said:
Damn. This doesn't bode too well for Prototype...
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Act-blizz already said they were keeping prototype, probably anyone not developing on Crash Bandicoot and Prototype will be gone.
 
I

Issun23

Member
Kydd BlaZe said:
After Haze, I kinda wish this was about Free Radical.
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They're a talented bunch. Some poor decisions and mistakes for one project still wouldn't justify actions like this.
 
S

Symytry

Member
Archie said:
Does that mean Activision is only going to release Guitar Hero, CoD and WOW expansions now?
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They are the EA from 5-7 years ago. They'll have their fun in the money sun run for about 5-7 years, and then the same fucking shit cycle will happen. They'll be all oh we need some new IP to stimulate the industry! Our CoD/Guitar Hero money making wells have run dry!~

Its too bad for the folks at Radical, especially in wake of all the layoffs in Vancouver in general. Hopefully they'll all be able to find work elsewhere, and receive a generous layoff package :D
 
I

Issun23

Member
Blacktin0 said:
What about low profit?
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It's like every business, there are highs and lows. If the company can sustain one hiccup, by focusing energies into a successful project they'll be able to make good for any losses.

EDIT: I was talking about Free Radical Design by the way.
 
F

FrankT

Member
Archie said:
Does that mean Activision is only going to release Guitar Hero, CoD and WOW expansions now?
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D3 and Starcraft. In all seriousness though the merger has brought nothing but axed projects and employees since it went official. It would seem they are going in the exact opposite direction that EA is going at this point as they are supporting pretty much nothing more than the established franchises. It wouldn't suprise me if Brutal Legends ends up with EA and I can see why Carmack and Co. went with them as well at this point.
 
Kydd BlaZe

Kydd BlaZe

Member
Amon37 said:
Act-blizz already said they were keeping prototype, probably anyone not developing on Crash Bandicoot and Prototype will be gone.
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Yeah, I know they're keeping it and all...I just hope that development is still running smooth with all these layoffs =(
 
S

sonicmj1

Member
Dark Octave said:
Activision Blizzard?
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Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Activision and Vivendi merged, their new name was Activision Blizzard, even though Blizzard is pretty much autonomous from the rest of the operation.

It's a shame that Blizzard's name is tied to such a publisher.
 
D

Death_Born

Banned
It's so annoying to hear games were cancelled and not know what they were.

Oh well, at least Prototype is safe. Hopefully they'll get more people working on it.
 
S

sangreal

Member
sonicmj1 said:
Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Activision and Vivendi merged, their new name was Activision Blizzard, even though Blizzard is pretty much autonomous from the rest of the operation.
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How do you figure?
 
K

Kifimbo

Member
Ghost said:
What are the chances that the 100 that are left are just there to finish up prototype?
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I would say it all depends on the success of Prototype. If it's a hit, Activision will want a sequel.
 
S

Screaming_Gremlin

My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
sangreal said:
How do you figure?
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From everything we have heard it seems that Activision has no influence over Blizzard. They will continue to do what they want when they want and since they bring in fat sacks of cash no one is going to say anything.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
sonicmj1 said:
Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Activision and Vivendi merged, their new name was Activision Blizzard, even though Blizzard is pretty much autonomous from the rest of the operation.

It's a shame that Blizzard's name is tied to such a publisher.
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Ah, that sucks. This is what usually happens when companies merge and buy each other out. Things get restructured and discombobulated and the employees are always the ones to suffer. There's no such thing as a permenant job anymore.
 
P

PnCIa

Member
Wow, i mean...from a business standpoint this is understandable...but on a personal level, this new mega publisher just keeps annoying me. Half the games means half the staff has to go, what about letting some people stay to get some more workforce behind those games so they can be finished quicker or even make them a bit better (if this matters to Actiblizzard, not so sure about that)
Never thought i would say that, but EA doesn´t look that bad anymore.
 
W

Wurm

Banned
I genuinely dont know what Activision are doing at this point. Canning games like Scarface and Ghostbusters, both with lucrative licenses attatched and potentially surefire retail hits in favour of dying mascot licenses like Crash and Spyro?

Short-sighted doesnt even cover it.
 
B

BeEatNU

WORLDSTAAAAAAR
sonicmj1 said:
Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Activision and Vivendi merged, their new name was Activision Blizzard, even though Blizzard is pretty much autonomous from the rest of the operation.

It's a shame that Blizzard's name is tied to such a publisher.
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:lol you guys are funny.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
I work for a small organization 2 hours south of them, and we are hiring. Any Radical members affected who're interested in a move, PM me.
 
T

Tiktaalik

Member
Jtyettis said:
D3 and Starcraft. In all seriousness though the merger has brought nothing but axed projects and employees since it went official. It would seem they are going in the exact opposite direction that EA is going at this point as they are supporting pretty much nothing more than the established franchises. It wouldn't suprise me if Brutal Legends ends up with EA and I can see why Carmack and Co. went with them as well at this point.
Click to expand...

Yeah it definitely seems that way. It seems like a strategy that could really bite Activision in the ass, but now they have WoW profits to prop them up if anything bad happens.

I really hope that EA's efforts pay off for them, since they're moving in the right direction.
 
P

Phife Dawg

Member
This is really messed up. All these lay-offs, mergers and acquisitions, studios going down is really, really sad.

Wurm said:
I genuinely dont know what Activision are doing at this point. Canning games like Scarface and Ghostbusters, both with lucrative licenses attatched and potentially surefire retail hits in favour of dying mascot licenses like Crash and Spyro?

Short-sighted doesnt even cover it.
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Well they have the numbers to crunch, not that I approve of their approach but when they deem the titles that will get the support here on onwards the most profitable you can bet a good truckload of cash that they are and will be indeed the most profitable. After all Activision is one of the few publishers who is actually making a sizeable profit.
 
M

mrpogi23

Member
with tons of layoffs going around... the bright side i see with it is there's more chance some ppl will start their own indie company and actually make cool little or big games. gets the talents spread out a bit.
 
B

Big-E

Member
Heard about something going down at radical about a week ago. Sucks big time to lose so many developers in one go but I am willing to bet a lot of companies in Vancouver will be hiring.
 
S

Steppenwolf

Member
Doesn't really make sense to fire half the staff and reduce the number of games by 50% if you want to improove the quality. More logic would be to only reduce the number of games you produce. 200 employees is a reasonable size for 2 game projects nowadays. 100 is not especially if one is as ambitious as Prototype. Activision really tries hard to be the new EA.

Good luck to all the fired people. Hope you get new work soon!
 
S

sneaky77

Member
Wurm said:
I genuinely dont know what Activision are doing at this point. Canning games like Scarface and Ghostbusters, both with lucrative licenses attatched and potentially surefire retail hits in favour of dying mascot licenses like Crash and Spyro?

Short-sighted doesnt even cover it.
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They didn't can the games.. they chose not to publish them.
 
S

SketchTheArtist

Member
Goddamn! What the hell?! They've done successful titles AND they are owned by Activision Blizzard?

What is going on there?

Sad about those artists and technicians. Good luck guys!
 
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