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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Prototype Developer gets shuts down by Activision

zarx on 29 June 2012
JEMC said:

Thanks for the sales info.

I see their business model and, imho, it's a very poor one. Mostly because they will reach a point where they won't be able to purchase the next big thing because another publisher will buy it before them or because the developers of said game have had bad experiences with them and will prefer to go with another publisher.

And even if they decide to go with Activision, they will probably do what Bungie has done: secure the rights of the IP so that Activision can't do what they have done with CoD.


Activision have 10 years of exclusive rights on Bungie games, that is more than enough time for the IP to become the next big thing stay there for years and then crash. Call of Duty is only 9 years old this year, and then they have the option to renew the contract if they want. 

People have been craping on Activision's business model of milking the big thing into the ground for 10 years, and they are doing better than ever. Plus they are tied to Blizzard now. Activison are the best in the business at picking up on market trends and finding new phenomenons. And not many studios have the leverage that Bungie has, fankly I was surprised that they agreed to such a long contract. At the end of the day money talks and Activision has a lot of money.

Skylanders and the idea of selling physical toys to unlock things in games has already made Activision a lot of money. Expect to see them expanding on that concept with Transformers etc soon. The Wii U including NFC will help them with that as well.



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JEMC on 29 June 2012
zarx said:

Activision have 10 years of exclusive rights on Bungie games, that is more than enough time for the IP to become the next big thing stay there for years and then crash. Call of Duty is only 9 years old this year, and then they have the option to renew the contract if they want.

Bungie has a veru good list of games, but that doesn't mean that their next game(s) will be excellent or sell well enough for Activision (see what happened with Bizarre).

And when I said the bit about having the rights of the IP, I ment that the IP is owned by Bungie (or whatever studio) so they can decide if they want another studio to make new iteration of their IP or not, as well as ensuring that if something happens and the contract is broken/cancelled, the IP will belong to them not Activision. West and Zampella learned this the hard way, and I'm sure Bungie took notes before signing the deal.

zarx said:

People have been craping on Activision's business model of milking the big thing into the ground for 10 years, and they are doing better than ever. Plus they are tied to Blizzard now. Activison are the best in the business at picking up on market trends and finding new phenomenons. And not many studios have the leverage that Bungie has, fankly I was surprised that they agreed to such a long contract. At the end of the day money talks and Activision has a lot of money.

I'm not arguing that. I've only said that this business strategy won't work forever.

zarx said:

Skylanders and the idea of selling physical toys to unlock things in games has already made Activision a lot of money. Expect to see them expanding on that concept with Transformers etc soon.

No argues with Skylanders, but there is a problem with Transformers: it is a license. Sure, they can release toys if they want, but it's more probable that it is Hasbro who makes and sells them, with only a fraction going to Activision.



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Areym on 29 June 2012
Bristow9091 said:
Yeah, I enjoyed the first Prototype, I'm gonna' get the second eventually too... Activision are stupid for closing the studio down... why not just get them to work on a new IP and give the Prototype IP to some other developer... there was no need to close the studio.


Gamers don't want new IPs. We just want more Zelda, Mario, GoW, GeoW, CoD, so why bother?



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Nem on 29 June 2012
Areym said:
Bristow9091 said:
Yeah, I enjoyed the first Prototype, I'm gonna' get the second eventually too... Activision are stupid for closing the studio down... why not just get them to work on a new IP and give the Prototype IP to some other developer... there was no need to close the studio.


Gamers don't want new IPs. We just want more Zelda, Mario, GoW, GeoW, CoD, so why bother?


I dont think thats entirely accurate.

There are new IP's that came out this gen that sell alot more than 1 million. Uncharted, assassins creed, most probably the last of us between others. Gamers do want other games.

Also, from those i only buy God of war if its what you meant and Zelda. I think you mean the average gamer wants those IP's, but if the hardcore market dies, no new IP's get embraced and the industry will die to sequalitis.