John-ShepardThese days, a chart-topping hit doesn't guarantee stability.
It started with Radical Entertainment's audio director, Rob Bridgett, posting an unfortunate update on his Twitter account : "RIP Radical Entertainment 1991-2012." Other designers have posted similar condolences.
Then came the official reply at GameSpot , where Activision has said that Radical's recent effort, Prototype 2 , didn't reach a wide enough audience and as a result, the publisher was forced to make a difficult decision.
"Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP, it did not find a broad commercial audience. Radical is a very talented team of developers, however, we have explored various options for the studio, including a potential sale of the business, and have made a difficult conclusion through the consultation process that the only remaining option is a significant reduction in staff. 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."
Radical was also responsible for the well-received Scarface: The World is Yours , along with other games like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and The Simpsons Road Rage . Prototype was the developer's first original IP and did relatively well but obviously, not quite good enough.
You can blame poor game sales on the bad economy, and the wealth of great games we have to spend our money on, but I think the big contributor to lack of sales is the increase in multiplayer/online games.
Sad sad sad.
I think it was the fact that Prototype 1 was lame.
What World said.
Prototype 1 couldnt have been that lame. It was well reviewed by critics and users when using metacritic as a source. I have my own subconscious distaste for the game only because it went up against the great Infamous and many people said it was better than Infamous.
My statements are also more towards the theme of this article. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more in this industry. Look at the maker of twisted metal. They are going to make cell phone games now.
Last edited by MyWorstNightmar on 6/29/2012 7:58:58 AM
Nah it was a pretty mediocre title in my opinion.
Part of me laughs and part of me dies when a good dev says they will go make cell/tablet/browser games.
I kinda liked Prototype 1. They lost me when they made Alex the bad guy in Prototype 2… Playing one of my victims from the first entry looked lame to me. The character is also so different that it turned me off. No point in playing it.
Another one bites the dust…
All this is is quite common today. As soon as a new game released, if we don't get news within the first few weeks sales are strong and have passed a million, it is very likely that that studio is on its way out, unless continually supported by its publisher…
Some indie developers who may have different costs structures with leaner and meaner teams, may survive over a few titles that don't necessarily sell spectacularly well, but those are far and few between I would say!
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
It's becoming a very competitive, cut-throat industry, particularly in the AAA marketplace. If a game doesn't capture the public's imagination prior to release it isn't usually going to fare so well in this environment. It really is too bad because who knows what a developer can build upon a shaky foundation?
Sad to see a company get screwed but if you work for Activision and aren't making a Call of Duty then you can kiss your ass goodbye.
Call of Duty or one of Blizzard's games
or spiderman.
or raven software, wonder what there doing ever since singularity finished.
wish they would do a sequel that was such a awesome game!
Raven is helping with the Calls of Dutys.
Infamous 2 is better…
infamous 2 -yawns- Crackdown 2 -yawns- Prototype 2 damn good game
lol Infamous 2 is in it's own league. Prototype 2 doesn't compare.
Rapture guess it's your opinion. Personally I skipped Prototype 2 since I watched a friend play and found the story utterly boring. Action was nice though but that's something I will get bored off after 45 minutes if there is no funny or epic story in the background. Graphics were also pretty poor compared to Infamous 2.
As much as I haven't really played a Prototype before, it's sad that a developer that wanted to strike out on their own has been reduced to this.
Too bad. Prototype wasn't *that* bad.
I gotta say that even though I didn't like the first Prototype much (never played the second) I got a feeling that had a game of similar qualities been released just a generation ago it would have been a hit. What do you guys think?
My point is that games have really started to be incredibly good these says. So good that we don't turn a blind eye to *anything* anymore.
Last edited by Beamboom on 6/29/2012 2:29:15 AM
I think you're probably right. I mean, GTA was loved because you could simply play around in it and Prototype seems to adopt that same mentality. Was the series a victim of simply being too late? I suppose we'll never know…
Oh well, hardly *any* game can be compared with GTA, they are like obelisks in the history of gaming.
I just wonder if we would have appreciated more a game with the similar production values as Prototype back then, cause most games had similar flaws or weren't *that* much better, comparatively speaking.
If we look back to the late 90s/early 2000s, I can clearly remember how games that we really treasured and adored had obvious flaws, everything from insanely unbalanced gameplay and stupid cheap bosses to severe performance issues and even crashes, while today we cry our eyes out if only we spot a screen tearing or a flick of a bitmap not loaded fast enough.
Same goes with gameplay, let's be honest here: There were maps or missions back then that were just plain *stupid*, also in the big titles. Either so hard that we had to cheat to get past them, so boring that we just kept going to get them over with, or so long between save opportunities that in effect you did four playthroughs in one.
Last edited by Beamboom on 6/29/2012 9:08:55 AM
So… I'm guessing they'll be put on more crappy film tie-ins like MiB: Alien Crisis and Battleship, or maybe it'll be another CoD studio. Whatever man. Prototype managed a fair tally, but the sequel hasn't even done a mil in two months. Maybe they should have just cut their losses with the series and let Radical come up with something new, and perhaps carry on Prototype in the digital realm. I've never played it, but it has always seemed to me more fitting as a downloadable offering considering it quickly becomes more about creating chaos than actually telling a story.
Whatever, it's Activision. If they can't abuse it with obscene money making ventures, it's going in the trash. The only surprise that I have in this news is that it didn't happen earlier.
darn that suxs oh well glad i brought it used for 45 dollars. i must be the only one that enjoyed the prototype series. prototype series > infamous series > crackdown series.
buying it used doesn't help radical entertainment one bit.
Last edited by Teddie9 on 6/29/2012 8:47:10 AM
oh come on!
prototype is one of the franchises out there that could be so freaking cool if it had the right developer!
oh well, i guess this is what happens when you release 2 sh*t games in a row, and only have 2 games to show for 6 years worth of work!
no seriously, how did they manage to churn out 2 sh*t games considering how long they were in development?
Now people can buy it used without worrying, there's no hope of good IPs to support out of the smithereens of this company.