Activision Announces Independent Games Competition

Activision, the videogame publisher best known for long running series like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, has announced that it will launch an Independent Games Competition, aimed at offering bedroom coders a chance to hit it big by having a project financed and maybe even picked up for publishing.

The first phase of the Activision competition will entail individuals and teams in the United States sending their projects to the publisher. Games that are completed can be sent but the company is saying that it is also accepting projects still in development, concepts and proposals, as long as they are coming in before August 31, 2010. After a judgment period, Activision will use the month of October to announce a first place winner, who gets 175,000 dollars, and a second place winner, with a prize of 75,000 dollars. The second phase of the competition will begin some time after that, presumably in early 2011.

Activision is stating that it plans to put more than half a million dollars into independent games development before the competition is over. It is very possible that those who do well and submit the winning concepts will be getting jobs creating other titles at the publisher itself.

Dave Stohl, who is the executive vice president of Studios at Activision, declared, “This competition underscores our commitment to supporting the creative spirit and innovation of developers. I started my career as a software developer, so this opportunity is something I'm personally very proud to offer to the industry's young visionaries.”

Thanks largely to the Chief Executive Officer, Bobby Kotick, Activision has taken on an image of a ruthless corporation only focused on profit and is no longer interested in offering fun experiencing to gamers. Offering support to independent developers might actually do wonders for the publishing giant in the long term.