Activision Dropping Several Vivendi Games

Activision announced today that they’ll be dropping some of Vivendi games’ franchises in favor of ones that are a ’strong fit with {the company’s} long-term strategy’. Looking at the list of games that were kept versus those that were dropped their strategy is quite obvious. While some will be happy that they’ve kept Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon on board, the other franchises they plan to keep are Ice Age, Prototype and a as-of-yet unnamed new IP. Of those titles, only one is definitely not a family-friendly title.

While the explosion of the gaming industry and the massive sales of games marketed towards younger gamers their strategy isn’t a huge surprise, but it does leave we adults who helped build this industry through our purchases and devotion in the lurch (that includes those of us who are now adults and grew up with games as well as those who were already adults when they first picked up a controller). Amongst the games that have been axed are Ghostbusters: The Video Game, 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, Brutal Legend, WET, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and World In Conflict: Soviet Assault.

I won’t shed a tear for the loss of a 50 Cent tie-in game, although I will admit the trailers looked decent, but Chronicles of Riddick performed incredibly well in sales and there’s no doubt in my mind the remake would have done just as well. As far as Ghostbusters? Given that they’ve just announced the release of the animated series on DVD, children of the 80s/90s would likely have gobbled that title up.

The only real hope remaining for fans of any of the dropped franchises is to pray (or maybe write a letter or two) that they’ll be sold to a different publisher instead of just dropped into the ‘vaporware’ bin.