Blizzavision keeps Crash, Spyro, Ice Age, Prototype; loses Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters, and more

by Christopher Grant on Jul 28th 2008 7:57PM

One of the major outstanding questions surrounding the Activision Blizzard merger was: "What the hell is going to happen to Vivendi's other video game division, Sierra?" The new super-publisher announced it will be keeping five of Sierra's franchises total: Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age, Spyro, the still-in-development Prototype, and another as-yet-unannounced title. We're currently looking into the fate of Sierra's other publishing arrangements: Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend (oh, Brütal Legend, we're so sorry!), Ghostbusters: The Video Game, WET, and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Activision Blizzard is also reviewing Sierra's other properties that they will not be publishing: think Bourne, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, World in Conflict, et al. Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith says, "We are reviewing our options regarding those titles that we will not be publishing." Those games won't be published by Blizzavision because they're not "a strong fit with [Activision Blizzard's] long-term product strategy." No word on the fate of Sierra's classic adventure games like King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.

As for the status of Sierra's in-house developers, Blizzavision will "realign staffing at Radical Entertainment and High Moon Studios" – the developers of Prototype and The Bourne Conspiracy respectively – while "exploring options regarding Massive Entertainment and Swordfish Studios" – the devs behind World in Conflict and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, respectively. Those "options" include "the possibility of divestiture." Also potentially up for sale: Vivendi Games Mobile and Sierra Online, the latter notably responsible for a large amount of XBLA and PSN games. More on this story as it inevitably unfolds.

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Reader Comments (54)

No graphic? I'm so confused right now.

Summary:

Keep - Sequels.
Lose - Innovation.

Gotchya.

Industry policy.

Look at activisions recent track record, its what they do best

Seriously. A better title would be "Blizzavision loses; keeps Crash, Spyro and Ice Age."

Yet they are seemingly ditching the sequel to the best movie-to-game adaptation yet? More proof that while Activision may like making games, they don't like making good games. And what's up with cancelling the other sequel, the 50 Cent game, which is sure to make a ton of bank no matter how good it is?

Brutal Legend!? *SAAAAAADFAAAAACE*
Ice Age vs. Brutal Legend. Clearly they've got some good heads on their shoulders.

Why are they kepping all there dead franchises, No bodys cared about crash or spyro since the late 90's

For some reason, people still buy Crash and Spyro games, despite their mediocrity as of late

And they were so good then... :( It's been depressing seeing my favorites get mauled with every new installment.

Even though every mutual fund keeps banging it in people's heads, they dont seem to get that

PAST PERFORMANCE DOES NOT INDICATE FUTURE RESULTS.

I am aggrieved that Brutal Legend is not declared safe, hopefully somebody with more balls and less debt will pick it up. C'mon EA, you seem to be doing human things nowadays.

Crash and Spyro built the Playstation brand, I think it's sad to see how low those series have gone. The demise of Crash and Spyro underscores the gradual demise of the platformer genre.

Guys, do not panic. It is okay. Double Fine Productions are their own company, they'll be able to get a new publisher.

I don't know why a publisher would give up the chance to publish a Tim Schafer game, it's a guaranteed hit (at least with reviewers and teh hardcore)

Soup thatoneguy?

It's STRatoSTRafe from GameFAQs. Odc64, you know. Last.fm too.

w00t.

Never knew you were Neebs, man.

Always been. I think I've been posting here longer than OUR THE NGG.

What the hell are they going to do next, drop Warcraft?
After losing Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters, it seems likely.

Hey, the original Crash Bandicoot and Spyro were AWESOME. When I tried playing the recent crap, though, I was dismayed, so I understand people's dislike of the franchise. But I wish they would try the originals because they are seriously awesome still (I recently replayed Spyro).

Crash Bandicoot and Spyro where hands down my favorite franchises on PS1. i can still pick them up and play through them today.

i bought every game until i bought the first Crash and Spryo games after Naughty Dog and Insomniac sold them, and that's when Crash and Spyro died for me...

Crash and Spyro were good back when their original devs, Naughty Dog and Insomniac respectively, still produced them. It often goes badly when IPs change developers :(

Not related, necessarily, but "Blactivison" sounds infinitely better than Blizzavision, IMHO.

You just blew my mind.

I prefer calling them Actard.

And this is why I spend way too much of my time reading comments on Joystiq.

No, you spend too much time here because *you care*

Admit it, Saria ... YOU CARE!

@Chris: No one needs to twist my arm to get me to admit that I LOVE JOYSTIQ. Oh, and I care.

*Twists your arm anyway*

All of the _____ Quest games should be released from their licenses and go straight to abandonware.

Oh, you bastards! You give me more Tribes, or I swear, I'll burn down the building. You kept Ice Age,over the best FPS the world has ever known, half a dozen extremely promising titles, and God knows what else. Can someone tell me what happens to Vivedi titles like FEAR?

Riddick, i love you, you are my soul, i weep tears of joy waiting for your return.

If you get cancelled i will murder and rape every person that works there. Although after a while ill get bored of all the rapeage and get Fernando to rape them for me.

Hopefully they lose the Homeworld license as well, and then Relic would SWOOP IN LIKE VULTURES AND REVIVE THE SERIES.

Everyone would then be happy, Iraq War would end, world peace ensues, 4chan starts being nice, etc.

The world wins.

How about just calling them "BastardVision" or "ActiBlow"?

Brutal Legend and Ghostbuster (especially when it was getting so much hype) both possibly stricken from the plans?!? I hope Ubisoft, THQ, or even EA at this point, comes along and snatches these up.

Omg no 50 cent game what am i gonna do?
o yea not care like before...

I WANT SPACE QUEST 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

me too, man. me too.

i basically grew up to be my hero, roger wilco. room always a total mess, sleep on the job, fumbling and bafoonish, good at making people laugh (at me? LOL), somehow got a gorgeous girl to like me, and, well i havent commanded my own garbage ship yet, but i hope i will someday!

That isn't how it happened. If you look at the original PS1 boxarts for Crash and Spyro, you'll find their IPs were both owned by Universal Interactive. Who was bought by Vivendi.

Wow. That stinks. Anytime someone on a message board complains about EA being a heartless corporation should be linked to this post -- Activision Blizzard are the new champions by far. Keeping Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and dumping Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters? In what universe does that even make sense?

You said it.

At least EA has faith in their own developers.

Not to mention all the people that will potentially lose their jobs... :(

What kind of retard chose Ice Age?

What's going to happen to FEAR? Maybe Warner Bros. can buy the name back and release Project Origin under FEAR 2 as it should be.

Hang on!
This is really big news - no Ghostbusters game???
They can't just sneak that out & expect people to forget about it - it looked like it was gonna be a right load of fun!

These companies don't half make some odd decisions.

I saw that Crash and Spyro are staying...don't care about anything else!! WOOHOO!! Muah..fatwendy

It doesn't matter, Crash and Spyro will never be the same as when they were developed by Naughty Dog and Insomniac.

And I fear a similar fate awaits Jak and Sly.

No more brutal legend or ghostbusters? =(

ok, wtf. Sierra takes the time to get EVERYONE from the Ghostbusters franchise on board to give their voices and likeness for the video game (including Bill Murray who was against any kind of 3rd sequel or any other tie-in to the Ghostbuster universe) and then it gets canned for this shite? (shite meaning crash, spyro, and ice age. prototype is intriguing)

The games aren't getting canned. They just aren't going to be published by Blizzavision.

I'm sure EA or Ubisoft will jump in and pick up some of those IP's.

Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age, and Spyro???? Are they serious? Those franchises are so old and stale.

How could they drop Brutal Legend? Why are Tim Schafer's genius ideas always treated like a red-headed step-child?

First Psychonauts got screwed from Majesco's poor marketing and now Brutal Legend gets burned by Blizzavision.

It must have been opposites day when they were making these decisions...

Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters(which will really be the third movie) being dropped and Ice Age is kept? Whaaaaa?

"We're currently looking into the fate of Sierra's other publishing arrangements: Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend (oh, Brütal Legend, we're so sorry!), Ghostbusters: The Video Game, WET, and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena."

I read that as joystiq is looking into the status on those games, not that that they have been dropped. Blizzard Activision, whatever you wanna call them, may have just announced the games they did and haven't commented on the others. I hope they are working on more games then just those 3 or 4.

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Blizzavision keeps Crash, Spyro, Ice Age, Prototype; loses Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters, and more

Reader Comments (54)

Posted: Jul 28th 2008 8:05PM (Unverified) said

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