World in Conflict Developer Massive Sold by Activision

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Massive Entertainment, developer of World in Conflict (PC, 360, PS3), has been bought by Ubisoft after being put up for sale back in August by previous owner Activision Blizzard.

"Ubisoft is growing at an intense pace and our strategy is to ensure the strength of our global creative teams," said Ubisoft executive Christine Burgess-Quemard in a statement obtained by GameSpot.

The French publisher is reportedly acquiring "the assets and all of the personnel" of the Swedish studio, signaling that the transition will be made without layoffs.

Activision Blizzard, for its part, reported a strong quarter just last week but made no mention of the transaction. Massive's future was put into question after Activision and Blizzard merged, necessitating a streamlining of the portfolio at owner Vivendi.

Massive is presumably still at work on Soviet Assault, an expansion to World in Conflict. The game was due this fall but suffered some setbacks from the sell-off, leaving its release date unknown.

From The Chatty
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    November 10, 2008 2:19 PM

    Does Activision not like talent?

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      November 10, 2008 2:53 PM

      Talent doesn't help when you are making games that will struggle hard to hit 500k.

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        November 10, 2008 6:38 PM

        Sadly, that's the truth. Even though Massive is one of the best developers in the business, they're still an RTS developer. RTS games aren't going to pull in the same kind of sales as other genres, unless the suffix "Craft" is present.

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          November 11, 2008 4:42 AM

          should have sold to EA, I'm sure they'd do better if they could add "Command & Conquer", like this Generals game ;)

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