Activision opens studio to create games other than Call of Duty

Xbox-owned activity has unveiled a brand new AAA studio in Poland that will develop something other than Call of Duty, which most Activision are currently working on. This should be good news! Industry needs more studios after thousands of layoffs. However, last week, Activision parent company Microsoft announced the closure of three video game studios. The response to the opening of this new studio has therefore not been entirely positive.

On May 16, Activision officially revealed Elsewhere Entertainment, a new in-house studio recently established in Warsaw, Poland. According to Activision’s press release, the new studio will focus “exclusively” on developing a “new, genre-defining, narrative-driven AAA franchise.”

This seems to imply that this new studio will not be another outfit in the huge Call of Duty content creation machine, unlike Raven Software and High Moon Studios. Activision has made headlines over the years for essentially taking all his studios and throw them in the Call of Duty mining. Maybe this time things will be different.

“Built from the ground up, Elsewhere Entertainment is a leading, self-sustaining studio dedicated to creating an environment that inspires bold and diverse ideas. The team’s underlying mission encourages everyone to explore and collaborate creatively to create a franchise with a lasting legacy that resonates far beyond the games,” Activision’s press release reads. , which appears to have been written by someone who was also trying to set a new record for most buzzwords used. in a single paragraph.

Activision says Elsewhere Entertainment includes staff who have previously worked on games like The Last of Us, Uncharted, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, The Division, Destiny, And Far from there. The studio appears to have gone public now as it continues to bolster its workforce and likely accelerate development of its first major game.

The timing of this news is not great, Bob

Of course, the timing of this reveal was not well received online. Activision’s parent company, Xbox, recently made headlines after suddenly shutting down three Bethesda-owned studios on May 7.

Things only got worse for Xbox after an all-hands meeting with Bethesda was leaked and reportedly revealed that the company had closed those studios due to resources and staff are spread too thin. Xbox President Matt Booty reportedly said closing these teams would help provide more money and staff for projects as the company focuses on fewer “high-impact” games.

So a major AAA studio revealed shortly after a bunch of people lost their jobs was poorly received online. And even though Activision is its own big company with its own executives and marketing plans, I understand why so many people are reacting badly to the news. It’s likely that Activision was building Elsewhere Entertainment well before the Microsoft merger. But it is extremely unlikely that Xbox executives had no idea this studio existed or that it was going to be publicly announced at that time.

Personally, if I were an executive at one of the largest technology companies in the world, I’d probably wait at least, I don’t know… a month after the studios close before letting another part of the company reveal a big new video game studio, even if it means delaying plans that were in progress. work for months. But hey, what do I know?

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