Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, has patrons regret on the subject of buying Weird Creations again in 2007.
In a latest interview with enterprise capital agency Kleiner Perkins on the Grit Podcast, Kotick known as the British studio a “unhealthy acquisition.” Nonetheless, he couldn’t identify mentioned studio within the interview, and described it as “um…in Manchester, that did the driving sport for Xbox.”
Weird, which is situated in Liverpool, developed the Venture Gotham Racing video games for the unique Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. Activision Blizzard purchased the studio for an preliminary $67.4 million, with an extra $40 million if sure benchmarks have been hit over the following 5 years.
From 2008 to 2010, Weird launched 4 video games—Geometry Wars: Retro Advanced 2, Geometry Wars: Contact, Blur, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone—earlier than its shutdown in 2011.
Kotick went on to debate a “actually good man, who was operating the day-to-day,” whom he couldn’t identify, however seems to be then-studio head Brian Woodhouse. He thought-about Woodhouse “sensible,” however mentioned Weird itself was an “$80 million” acquisition general, and was subsequently written off two years later. “Every part about it violated all our rules.”
Nonetheless, he famous his former firm’s acqusition technique was to purchase corporations for his or her proprietary know-how, IP, or “historical past of profitability.” Conserving a studio’s administration and guaranteeing that firm nonetheless had its independence was additionally thought-about a stark distinction to a studio like EA, which he mentioned would purchase a developer and substitute the unique identify with its personal branding.
Excessive-level online game executives usually communicate warmly concerning the studios they’ve acquired, and speak up the potential worth they will add to the writer’s portfolio. This was, in any case, how Microsoft bought the general public on its acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and different third-party builders.
Kotick’s ideas on Weird are extra candid than most in his former place have been capable of give, or at the very least extra intentional. Usually, if an government is disillusioned in a studio, they critique their most up-to-date launch and lower that developer’s workers, as lately seen with BioWare and Phoenix Labs.
As one other instance, Xbox boss Matt Booty talked about making “smaller video games that give us status and awards” in 2023, simply days after closing Tango Gameworks, makers of the acclaimed Hello-Fi Rush.
After Weird’s closure, a number of alums went on to discovered Lucid Video games, which went on to proceed Geometry Wars and extra lately launch Destruction AllStars on PlayStation 5. Lucid can be a co-developer on Uncommon’s Sea of Thieves, and was acquired by Lightspeed Studios in 2023. On the time of that acquisition, Lucid mentioned it might leverage its new mother or father firm’s sources whereas “persevering with to take pleasure in full independence within the video games that we create and the operation of the studio.”
