October
29
Brutal Legend still homeless, sources blame Activision Blizzard
As noted in my previous post, it seems almost every near complete Sierra game that Activision Blizzard decided not to publish has a new home. Except one: Brutal Legend.
While doing my reporting on "Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena" and "Ghostbusters" (info here), I checked in on everyone's favorite heavy metal action game starring Jack Black and, well, the news isn't great.
Sources close to the process confirmed that "Brutal Legend" hasn't been set up at a new publisher since, as I reported back in August, negotiations with MTV fell through.
Whatever the exact reasons, it seems that tensions are running high between Double Fine and Activision Blizzard as they try to make a deal with a new publisher.
I spoke to some sources on the Double Fine side and they said the problem isn't that other publishers aren't interested. They say it's that Activision Blizzard has been "an impediment" and that they're "blocking the process."
Now of course everyone has their own agenda in a negotiation and I'm sure Activision Blizzard, which declined to comment, has a very different perspective. But when one side is willing to bad mouth the other, you can be certain of at least one thing: talks are not going well and people are pissed. If they were close to a deal, everyone would keep their mouths shut to keep the process going smoothly.
So, whatever the exact details, it seems that the Double Fine side feels that Activision Blizzard is intentiontally trying to make setting up "Brutal Legend" at a new publisher difficult, if not impossible. Which means things won't be sorted out anytime soon and we probably won't be hearing an announcement about the game's fate, let alone playing it, for a while.
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
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Posted by: buy habbo gold | March 11, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Perhaps I'm the only business minded person who reads variety, it sounds far more logical that "Blocking" means "ATVI aren't selling until another publisher offers them enough money to cover their already sunk costs."
Given that Schafer has done this before (Microsoft to Majesco) it would seem history is doomed to repeat itself.
Posted by: Dan Metis | October 31, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Is it just me or is that the spear from Fallout 2 in that chicks hand?
Posted by: Gonzotftd | October 30, 2008 at 02:11 PM
Sorry about double-posting, but it struck me that maybe Activision somehow sees Brutal Legend as a competitor to their own Guitar Hero games, what with the focus on rock and all. And so they might rather see it die than end up in another publisher's hands. I don't know, just a thought.
Posted by: the fluffy one | October 30, 2008 at 04:43 AM
What about the biggest former Vivendi-title (at least in terms of critical acclaim), World in Conflict? Haven't heard anything about that in a while.
Posted by: the fluffy one | October 30, 2008 at 04:30 AM
Could Activision be trying to sour any deals so Doublefine if forced to re-negotiate with Activision only Activision gets everything on its terms ?
Sure sounds like it to me & Activision are the new evil empire on gaming I wonder how long it will take before there name is mud among the community. There are people who still slam EA for things that happened decades ago even though they probably weren't even around then.
Posted by: Quirk | October 30, 2008 at 02:02 AM