[GRIN_Wolfsong]

In case anyone has missed this new from a few days ago. The now fully merged Activision Blizzard is cleaning house and canceling a lot of projects, including the follow-up World In Conflict. Not to stop there they have even decided to drop the creators of the award winning game. So right now Massive Entertainment will be closed down unless some other company buys them up... too bad. I guess they didn't want a rivaling developer against Blizzard in-house when it comes to RTS.

[Walter]

Another nail in the coffin of good PC and videogames.

[Rocky]

[viiiper]

Well, they had 10 years & brought one/two main PC titles (both the same). I liked strategy, but not the WIC styles, (I'm more Total Annihilation or supreme commander). Shame but the market is becoming difficult.

One less Dev house in SE. means less competition, it's happening in the field I'm working in, things are getting tighter, but one thing is still the same. People ar still buying software, buy now they are more choosy....


Between now & June 09 I had 10 titles lined up, I've now whittled that down to 5, of which 3 are definites & 2 are possibles, that's my PC game shop for the next 10 months. My consoles & console friends are doing the same but even tighter, 3 or 4 main titles, but they are looking at Christmas (a shorter period). Rocky (no pun) road ahead for software, it has to be extra special to get the brass from the customer.

Sad one less dev house but on a brighter note, Blizzard are advertising....

[GRIN_Wolfsong]

I think I've bought 16 titles since beginning of May, for PC and PS3...

[GrimeyAK]

Well this sucks. I was planning to get the Soviet Assault expansion.

[rookie]

I hope the right people see the potential.

[Pave Low]

interesting news from a couple of days ago

Quote

UBISOFT® ACQUIRES THE ASSETS OF MASSIVE ENTERTAINMENT®

Paris, France – November 10, 2008 – Today Ubisoft announced that it has acquired from Activision Blizzard the assets and all of the personnel of esteemed Malmö, Sweden- based studio Massive Entertainment®, as well as the real time strategy brand World In Conflict®.

Created in 1997, Massive employs over 120 developers and was ranked as one of the top 50 best game studios in the world by Game Developers Research in 2008. The studio is world-renowned for its expertise in the RTS genre and for the quality of its innovative proprietary technologies. World in Conflict® was acclaimed by critics, receiving the Best Strategy Game of E3 2007 award, as well as being named Best Online Multiplayer Game of 2007 by IGN, and Most Innovative Game of 2007 by Gamespot, among many other awards.

"We are delighted to welcome the talented team of creators at Massive into the Ubisoft family," said Christine Burgess-Quemard, executive director of worldwide production studios at Ubisoft. "Ubisoft is growing at an intense pace and our strategy is to ensure the strength of our global creative teams. Massive has put together a group of some of the most confirmed and recognized creators in the industry and I know that their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios."

“Massive’s development team places great importance on its freedom to innovate and create games of the highest quality,� stated Martin Walfisz, president and founder of Massive Entertainment®. “We are fortunate to have found in Ubisoft a publisher who shares the same values and understands our mindset. I have no doubt that our future together will offer significant mutual benefit and synergy.�

particularly when taken with statements by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot at BMO Capital Markets' Interactive Entertainment Conference in New York on Thursday

Quote

"We just bought [Massive] from [Activision Blizzard] because those guys are Blizzard, so they didn't need that studio as much as we do. And they're extremely strong in RTS. [Massive is] also going get us closer to the MMO space."

Quote

"Our goal there is to go first with 'light' MMOs that have been extremely popular for a long time in China, but which are also coming up in the U.S. and Europe, and are generating good revenue. ... In the future, we'll come with RPGs and RTS also in the MMO space," Guillemot said.

Source Ubisoft: Massive Buy Is a Step Towards MMOs

and it ties back to our previous forum thread here > Ubi looking at a Tom Clancy MMO game

[GrimeyAK]

That's interesting. So does that mean Soviet Assault will be released with Ubi as the publisher?

I just hope Ubi doesn't kill Massive and their IPs.

[Pave Low]

had heard the PC version was going to be "like a downloadable mission pack" instead of an expansion pack as originally thought

but the original released date was scrubbed by Activision when they put Massive up for sale and No new release date has been announced
and so far no comment from Ubisoft on whether or not Soviet Assault will be released.

[firefly2442]

I hope they keep working on World in Conflict. Those developers have put out some amazing games over the years. Ground Control was ahead of its time when it was released.

[GRIN_Wolfsong]

If anyone has missed it, Ubisoft has bought Massive Entertainment and have given them the task of creating an MMORTS.

[Pave Low]

http://www.ghostreco...showtopic=51095

[Rocky]

It hadn't clicked with me that this latest news stemmed from back in August, nice one.

[firefly2442]

http://www.gamespot....ws/6203443.html

March release date for the expansion apparently.