![]() We received a shred of hope that another Tony Hawk remake may still come to fruition, but morale remains low for fans of Activision-owned IP that don’t have the same level of upside as Call of Duty. Goodwill from fans doesn’t affect quarterly stock reports, after all. But Activision knew sequels to those titles wouldn’t net as much profit as Diablo and Call of Duty, so it didn’t matter. Given its previous Crash Bandicoot titles sold best on Nintendo’s hybrid console, the publisher made its decision before even having a full picture of the games’ sales performance. So it decided to rip a group of developers from the types of games they spent years honing their talents on.Īctivision didn’t even wait to see the sales of the Switch releases of Crash 4 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 before shuffling Toys 4 Bob and Vicarious Visions on to new projects. That’s how the studio behind mascot platformers like Skylanders, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot began assisting in the development of a realistic first-person shooter franchise.Īctivision could have acquired a studio with expertise in military action games, but that would have taken more time. In order to feed the Call of Duty beast and keep players engaged, the series needs thousands of developers devoted to creating new content. The addition of the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile made the franchise even more profitable for Activision. The series’ annual titles are always top sellers, typically the best-selling games of any given year. The Call of Duty franchise is driving most of Activision’s recent growth. Toys 4 Bob, on the other hand, lost any shred of independence it once claimed when it was transformed into a support studio for the Call of Duty franchise. While the shift was sudden, the studio at least retains a sense of autonomy as the lead developer on the project. Activision moved Vicarious Visions on to a long-planned remake of Diablo 2. With its eyes on the stock market, the company decided that, instead of maintaining a diverse portfolio of video games, it would consolidate around its most profitable ventures. A perfect demonstration of that is Activision’s CEO Bobby Kodick, who gave himself such a high salary that his own board demanded he take a pay cut. Money is what matters to the people at the top. ![]() More than any other video game publisher, Activision is intensely focused on the company’s stock market performance. ![]()
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