Activision Reduces Prototype Devs To “Support” Role, Significantly Reduces Staff Levels

[drop2]Radical Entertainment, the developers of the Prototype games, have been reduced to a mere “support” role by publishers Activision.

“Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP,” says an Activision press release, “it did not find a broad commercial audience.”

The publisher did say that Radical were a “very talented team” but despite exploring “various options” they have decided to “significantly reduce” the staff levels.

A sale of the business was considered, although wasn’t followed up.

“As such, some employees will remain working for Radical Entertainment supporting other existing Activision Publishing projects, but the studio will cease development of its own games going forward.”

This, as you’d assume, will be a real kick in the teeth for the studio.

“RIP Radical Entertainment 1991-2012,” tweeted former Radical sound engineer Rob Bridgett.

“Hi everyone. Yes, there’s some unfortunate news to share today,” said a statement from the developers on Facebook. “This morning Radical Entertainment went through a significant reduction in staff. We’re very proud of what we achieved with the PROTOTYPE franchise, but unfortunately, the Blacklight virus didn’t spread as far as it could.”

“For PC gamers, rest assured that the PC version of PROTOTYPE 2 is still going to launch on July 24th as planned. And a special ‘thanks’ to the PROTOTYPE Army and all our extremely loyal and passionate fans for supporting Radical Entertainment.”

“We couldn’t have come this far without you.”

TheSixthAxis really enjoyed the Prototype games, scoring the second one 8/10.

27 Comments

  1. “it did not find a broad commercial audience.” sounds an awful lot like EA’s statement that they wanted to find a “broad audience” with Dead Space 3…and that it needs to sell 5 million. Damn you, Activision!

  2. Its a shame huge profits are all activision care about. Obviously its the driving force behind all business but allowing to ideas to flourish is the true sign or a great games publisher.

    • You’ve hit the nail on the head there. Yes unfortunately the games business is a business and bosses and shareholders are generally in it to make a profit so woe betide whatever or whomever stands in the way of this but it is still sad to see a talemted team of devs laid off / reduced. I’m sure and hope they’ll find work elsewhere. Recently bought Prototype 2 but not had time to play it much but looks like just the sort of sand box fun I’ll love. If it’s a patch on Just Cause 2 I’m in for a treat.

  3. So, “support role” for the next COD then. Or do Activision have any other IPs left in their portfolio?

    • Spiderman. That’s about it really! :S

  4. Prototype was terrible at least 2 was anyway. Im sure these guys will do just fine in whatever it is they do next though.

    • Whatchu talkin’ bout willus?? Prototype was far from terrible – Even the first one was pretty damn good, albeit with some rough edges.

      The second one is exceptionally good, with almost every element being refined.

      • Well I got bored of both pretty quickly. Rough around the edges is kind it looked like it was a ps2 game! The concept is/was good it just wasn’t executed very well.

  5. Should’ve made Hulk: Ultimate Destrution 2

    • Now they’ll never get the chance ;_; RIP Hulk has a game’s franchise and 0.01% creditably to Activision. Really won’t be long till Beenox and the dev of Transformers is gone.

  6. The Simpsons Hit and Run and Road Rage were top fun. I did enjoy the first Prototype as well. I haven’t played Prototype 2 as I’m a bit leery of sequels (Left 4 Dead2, Dead Space2, Crackdown2, Final Fantasy XIII, etc)

    Activision is the artistic devoid – think about how many Rock Bands, Guitar Hero’s COD’s err “dooty” there have been. It’s as bad as Hollywood now spending lots of money on homogenized generic crap they can shovel to the masses – but then Activision isn’t alone EA, Capcom, Square- Enix shovel it as well. I’m sure there are other companies that do it too but thinking about it depresses me

  7. Hmm, they’ve had an interesting history with Activision.
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Entertainment

    I guess this bit means it wasn’t a commercial success..?
    “Prototype 2 was released in April 2012 as Radical Entertainment’s biggest game launch ever. The game was well received, with positive reviews on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Versions, with the PC release coming at a later date in 2012.[10] The sales for Prototype 2 dominate the sales of games in April 2012, and achieved higher sales than Kinect Star Wars and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the month.”

  8. I find it interesting that a lot of people are so quick to blame Activision. Who buys the games that shape how Activision approaches the market?

    • I don’t buy CoD unless its preowned or cheap if that is what you mean – Millions of others don’t follow my lead though unfortunately.

  9. Maybe they are developing vita ops?

  10. Another studio on CoD map packs then?

    I never really got behind Prototype (will give the second one a go at some point) but one of Radical’s earlier games, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a PS2 classic in my eyes. For those who haven’t played it, it’s near enough identical to Prototype minus current-gen graphics.

Comments are now closed for this post.