Massive Entertainment: Moving Forwards Feature

Following the sealing of the Activision-Blizzard merger, many titles formerly falling under the Vivendi/Sierra banner face an uncertain future. Amidst the likes of Ghostbusters, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and first-party developers such as Swordfish Studios, Massive Entertainment and their groundbreaking RTS World in Conflict also found the 'For Sale' sign erected after the board's decision.

TVG recently had the opportunity to speak with Massive's David Polfeldt, Vice President and Director of Marketing, on the situation surrounding the studio, the future of World in Conflict and the possible return of Ground Control.

TVG: Firstly, the Activision-Blizzard merger has caused a number of titles to face an uncertain future, with World in Conflict: Soviet Assault caught up in the situation; do you feel confident that WiC will find a new home with another publisher and that console fans can enjoy the action before too long?

Due to the nature of the situation, I'm not allowed to say very much about this. I think that Activision Blizzard will be a great company, and we would have loved to work for them. But OK, a lot of things didn't fit into the short-term strategy of the merged company, and we're just one of those. It's not often that a 90+ studio shows up on the market, and other publishers are well aware of this. Releasing World In Conflict will be a no-brainer for a potential buyer.

TVG: Could you please give us an update to the state of Soviet Assault; how are the console versions shaping up and do you feel it offers something beyond EA's and Ubisoft's attempts at bringing a strategic offering to console gamers?

Soviet Assault is in great shape, and we're just adding the final strokes of perfection to it. We feel very confident that we've nailed the controls, which was always the challenge with an RTS game on console. The other guys seem to have taken a slightly different approach to some features and design-issues, so I suppose we'll just have to let Darwin eventually tell us who made the smartest choices.

TVG: Massive Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi Games; presumably, the studio is in the shop window for other publishers now or could you envision yourselves becoming independent once more?

We have had plenty of time to think through all sorts of scenarios. The ownership structure is not the most important for us, as long as we can focus on making great games.

TVG: Were you surprised that following Activision-Blizzard's strategic review that Soviet Assault and Massive Entertainment weren't considered; do you feel there could have been a conflict of interest with Blizzard's output?

It was a bit of a surprise considering that all major publishers have announced that there's a shortage of quality developers. We always got along really well with the Blizzard guys, and they're extremely nice folks. I can't fathom that there would have been a conflict of interest with their output.

TVG: Will the recent developments affect the support for World in Conflict in any significant way - online support, modding, etc...?

Nope.

TVG: Moving forwards, will Massive Entertainment continue to support the PC with new titles, or do you see the consoles gaining a more significant role?

We love making PC games, so I can't see how we'd ever stop doing that. But we love console games too, and we play them just as much - as I suppose most gamers do nowadays. It makes sense on all levels to release a game on PC and console, so that's what we expect to do in the future.

TVG: We've heard suggestions that you're currently working on a new project; can you slip us any details on this?

Yes, sure. Lol. ;-)

TVG: Massive Entertainment have a history of working the strategy/tactics genre; would you ever consider stepping outside of this and what type of game/genre would you be interested in exploring?

To be honest, we see ourselves as a "quality studio" more than an "RTS studio". We're gamers, big-time, and we play virtually every type of game you can imagine (except, well, uh, maybe some). So, in our own minds we would consider making games in other genres quite effortlessly, but we're so good at RTSs, I'm not sure it'd make sense.

TVG: I believe you hold the rights for both WiC and Ground Control; are both of these central to you moving forwards, or are you looking towards new IP?

Yes we do, and yes and yes.

TVG: You're experts in the strategy/tactics genre; how do you see it evolving over the next few years?

That's a really interesting question, and one that we regularly debate. I expect Blizzard to remain very loyal to the type of gameplay that they have used in all their RTS games to date. So there will be that.

At the other end of the scale, I think that someone will have to re-visit the very core of RTS and re-think what's really perfect for consoles. Simply put, strategy games are in need of some fundamental changes and clever ideas to make sense on consoles. I'm not sure what we should expect from that just yet, but at Massive we have some very original concepts that I'm not going to talk about just now.

TVG would like to thank David Polfeldt for sharing some time to answer our questions. World in Conflict fans can rest easy with the knowledge that Massive Entertainment will continue to support the franchise, and we wish Massive Entertainment the best in their future endeavours.