Radical Entertainment staff levels slashed

By Dan Pearson Published 14 August, 2008

Nearly half of employees to go.

New giants on the gaming block Activision Blizzard have confirmed that they'll be 'realigning staffing' at Vancouver-based developer Radical Entertainment.

The number of titles in development has been officially reduced to two: Prototype and Crash Bandicoot.

The studio, which produced Scarface: The World is Yours and Crash of the Titans, was due to produce a sequel to the third-person mob title, but Scarface 2 disappeared from the list of titles being carried over to a sequel.

Variety's Cut Scene blog says Scarface 2 is the latest on the list of terminated titles, or at least titles now floating free of a publisher - a list that already includes Ghostbusters and Tim Schaeffer's Brutal Legend.

The aforementioned staff cuts were announced by Activision Blizzard in a 29th July statement, picked up by the Vancouver Sun yesterday.

Radical's management, in the shape of Leah Rubin, responded in an email. "Activision Blizzard is committed to making the best games possible and has elected at this time to reduce the number of titles that Radical is developing from four games to two...Therefore, we will be proportionately reducing the size of our studio."

The news follows yesterday's cuts at fellow Activision Blizzard satellite studio High Moon, as reported by Gamasutra. The parent company's official line is that "the company intends to adapt the Vivendi Games' studio operations to better align the studio structure against the new product slate." Which is a nice way of saying shape up, or ship out.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sickpuppysoftware #1 4 years ago

    If I ever worked for a boss that used 'realigning staffing' whilst putting me out of work they would find themselves quickly requiring 'nasal realignment'

  • NickDude #2 4 years ago

    boooo. i aint liking this activision-blizzard deals. all the games are getting the chop, as are the people. so its bad for the industry.boo greedy activision execs

  • Doctor_What #3 4 years ago

    That's yet more people looking for work. Damn.

  • ukcodemonkey #4 4 years ago

    From one who works in the game industry, I'll have to consider if I want to continue to pay WOW subs to Blizzard after this. :-@

  • Vin #5 4 years ago

    Shitty.

    Welcome to the age of a handful of publishers left in the industry.

  • hulahoops #6 4 years ago

    ...and self publishing becoming ever more viable.

    So it's not all bad.

    Crappy for the Radical boys and girls though. I believe this was the first they heard of the numbers that are going. They don't know who's getting the chop yet.

  • konstantinos #7 4 years ago

    capitalism shows its ugly face once again... it's got a pretty one too, for sure... but that is becoming more and more scarce the more time passes, doesn't it...? sometimes, I really miss the nineties... quiting one day (never fired), hired somewhere else the next day (always with better pay)...

    pity abouit scarface... that was a funny, rude game...

    cheers...

  • SpikeRocks #8 4 years ago

    Activision Blizzard, the new EA.

  • Royal Fool #9 4 years ago

    Watkins381: That's a stupid assumption. Vivendi owned the Crash IP at the time, so they naturally were ultimately responsible for how the game would look.

  • Cyclone #10 4 years ago

    Bit shitty. It's not as if Activision Blizzard are short of money with the hundreds of millions of dollars that WoW's 10 million subscriber base bring in every month.

  • actionfitz #11 4 years ago

    "Activision Blizzard is committed to making AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE and has elected at this time to reduce the number of titles that Radical is developing from four games to two...Therefore, we will be proportionately reducing the size of our studio."
    \
    fixed :)

  • smelly #12 4 years ago


    @Watkins381: May i be the first to say : Fuck you you fucking asshole fucking twat of a fucking kid. One of these days you'll get laid, but i doubt it'll be someone you dont fucking pay for.

    Fucker.

  • el_pollo_diablo #13 4 years ago

    I wish the very best to all those now jobless.

    If any of them are reading this, now is your chance to give Ron Gilbert a ring and make a really amazing game together. See it as a blessing.

  • space_ace #14 4 years ago

    brütal legend

  • vx-chemical #15 4 years ago

    I mean how does sacking people mean making better game, if they cancelled 2 games and kept the staff i wouldnt be worried, since that would mean more people working on each game.

  • IronCladChicken #16 4 years ago

    With some minor tweaking (death instead of heavy) Brutal Legend could have become 'Tim Schafer's Metalopocalypse'
    Then nothing could have stopped his plans for world domination.

  • hollybabes #17 4 years ago

    Ive got friends at radical, and this "announcement" is a pile of crap..

    They have gone from almost 200 staff to 25 now, and they got a days notice "that something was gona be announced"..

    Activision have basically absorbed and chewed up radical for the IP's it owns..

    I feel sorry for everyone who worked there...

  • kinky_mong #18 4 years ago

    I would say at least Prototype is safe, but considering this sort of harsh take-over has rarely been good for games that will inevitably be ruined in a J-Pod style by the main character being replaced by a wise-cracking turtle.

    Meanwhile the once evil EA seemed to have turned around completely, but I'll reserve final judgement until I actually get to play Mirror's Edge and Dead Space.

  • jebus #19 4 years ago

    @Watkins381 radical murdered crash bandicoot so they deserved it



    You prick.
    I hope that you get laid off one day if you ever get a job that requires more skill than flipping burgers.

  • smelly #20 4 years ago

    @N@:

    Fuck you too prick.

  • OllyJ #21 4 years ago

    I think I might realign my game choices over the next year.

  • actionfitz #22 4 years ago

    @smelly
    14-Aug-08 22:06:04


    "@Watkins381: May i be the first to say : Fuck you you fucking asshole fucking twat of a fucking kid. One of these days you'll get laid, but i doubt it'll be someone you dont fucking pay for.
    Fucker.

    @N@:

    Fuck you too prick. "

    nice articulate use of vocabulary to illustrate you opinion. you'll go far.
    -.-