14 DAY TRIAL // Activision Blizzard is looking more and more like a company that, apart from the franchises that are in the hands of the World of Warcraft developer, focuses on just one big annual franchise, Call of Duty, to get most of its recognition and revenue.
But the leaders of the company apparently don't like to be known as conservative and lacking in innovation.
Eric Hirshberg, who is the leader of the publishing division of Activision Blizzard, has told Industry Gamers during an interview that, “I don’t feel like Activision gets credit for the support it gives to the big ideas we get behind. And when we get behind something, we get behind something big.”
He added, “I think that any company who has the scale and kind of hits that we do would be just as motivated to protect them and to invest in them as we are. I think when you have a massive hit like Call of Duty or you have the kind of hit that Blizzard has in World of Warcraft, the first priority, of course, is to focus on and put every resource possible into keeping that leadership position.”
The examples that Hirshberg focuses on are Skylanders: Spyro's Adventures, Prototype 2 and the new project coming from Bungie, the team that has created Halo and is now working with Activision.
Out of the mentioned games the first two look pretty run of the mill and by the numbers and we do not know enough about the new Bungie video game to judge how much innovation is incorporated into it.
The big fall launch for Activision is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which is being developed by Infinity Ward with help from Sledgehammer Games.
This project is likely to sell very well but the initial trailers and leaks of information about it show a first person shooter that uses the same formula as the two games that came before it in the franchise.