Tag Archives: Massive Entertainment

Martin Walfisz, the Massive founder confirmed as leaving the studio yesterday, has said that new owner Ubisoft sees a big future for the Swedish firm.

“I will not manage Ubisoft Massive going forward. Last week I decided not to accept the offer to manage the studio, and my last day with the team was on Friday,” Walfisz told GI.

“Ubisoft has very ambitious plans for Massive, and they are undoubtedly a great publisher, but they are not the right employer for me at this time in my life.

“Nevertheless, Massive is in good hands and I have no doubt that the company will continue to do greatness in the future. I want to thank everyone at the studio, and all the fans, for the good times so far.”

What’s that? Clancy? What?

Massive Entertainment’s Martin Walfiszhas left both the studio he founded and its new owner, Ubisoft.

Formed in 1997, Massive was purchased by Vivendi in 2002 and was acquired by Ubisoft after being put up for sale by Activision Blizzard last year.

“Ubisoft is saddened by the recent departure of Martin Walfiz from Massive Entertainment and we wish him all the best in his future projects,” said the company.

Details regarding the reason for his departure are unknown at this time.

Ubisoft has told VG247 that, despite reportedly canning the two console versions of Massive’s World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, the firm is “brimming with great ideas” for RTS in general and believes in the genre wholeheartedly.

A Ubi rep told IGN in early March that, “World of Conflict: Soviet Assault will be released for the PC later this month. A console version of World in Conflict is not planned for release at this time.”

Explaining focus on Soviet Assault’s PC version, Ubi told us in a statement today that: “Our priority is to the work excellent work that Massive has done on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC. The game was ready to go and of excellent quality and were are excited to make it available to World in Conflict fans.”

The publisher refused to confirm that status of the 360 and PS3 versions of Soviet Assault, however, saying, “For the console version, we have not announced anything official at this time.”

Here’s what we asked, and here’s what Ubi said:

VG247: Why won’t Ubi be publishing the 360 and PS3 versions of World in Conflict: Soviet Assault?

Ubisoft: Our priority is to the work excellent work that Massive has done on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC. The game was ready to go and of excellent quality and were are excited to make it available to World in Conflict fans. For the console version, we have not announced anything official at this time.

Does Ubisoft see a future in “traditional” console RTS at all? Can we expect to see an EndWar sequel?

Ubisoft is committed to the RTS segment – it’s a great genre that is open for creativity and innovation. We have no official announcement to make at this time but rest assured that our teams are enthusiastic about RTS and brimming with great ideas.

Console RTS isn’t looking like it’s in the best place ever, what with the Soviet Assault versions being sidelined and Ensemble taking one to the head after the Halo Wars release.

Compare that to rocket success for Empire on PC and you probably don’t need a degree in astrophysics to see why things are working out the way they are.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault ships for PC later this month.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is expected to land on UK shores March 13, and to help persuade you to go out and get it, Massive has released a new video.

GamersHell has it, and it’s pretty dramatic.

In the trailer, you get a glimpse of the main characters and just enough of the storyline to whet your appetite for the RTS.

The expansion boasts six new single-player missions, eight new multiplayer maps, and voice communication via the headset — just in case you haven’t been paying attention.

Massive’s latest set of mountains and molehills for its possibly prophetic RTS is almost here, according to a report over at Gamershell.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault will give the game a few new environments for you to wreck with tank tracks, along with Endwar-style vocal controls, and will launch on March 13. At this point, a responsibility-neglecting excess of excitement will no longer prove fatal.

So, who’s buying?

Ubisoft has released a new trailer of Massive’s World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. Watch it after the break.

Played from the Soviet perspective of World in Conflict’s fictional Hot War, the game offers six new single-player missions along with eight new multiplayer maps.

Like Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Soviet Assault allows you to call in reinforcements or new units by using context menus and voice communication via the headset.

The trailer’s narrated by Alec Baldwin and shows the 1989 alternate reality beginnings of World War III in Berlin.

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Ubisoft will publishe Massive Entertainment’s World in Conflict PC expansion pack dubbed Soviet Assault, writes Shacknews.

If you don’t yet own the game, there will be World in Conflict: Complete Edition which will include the expansion and some “new features.” This will be available at retail the same time as the expansion becomes available.

However, dates for console versions of the wartime strategy title weren’t mentioned, but two new screenshots were released.

You can see those after the break.

By Mike Bowden

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Speaking at the Annual BMO Capitol Markets Interactive Entertainment conference this morning, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said that newly acquired RTS studio Massive is going to be put to work on getting Ubi into the MMO field.

“We just bought it from them since those guys have Blizzard so they didn’t need that studio as much as we do, and those guys are extremely strong in RTS, so they are going to help us also get closer to the MMO space,” he said.

“Our goal there is to go first with light MMOs…that have been extremely popular in China but are also coming in the U.S. and Europe and are generating lots of good revenue, so our goal is first to start with light MMOs, and then in the future also come with RPG and RTS, also in the MMO space.”

Welcome to Clancy, boys. Thanks, Kotaku.

Ubisoft has acquired former Acti Blizz developer Massive Entertainment, along with in-development RTS sequel Soviet Assault.

“Ubisoft is growing at an intense pace and our strategy is to ensure the strength of our global creative teams,” said Christine Burgess-Quemard, Ubisoft’s executive director of worldwide production studios.

“Massive has put together a group of some of the most confirmed and recognized creators in the industry and I know that their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios.”

Activision put the Swedish development team up for sale last August when it merged with Blizzard.

Press release after the break.

By Mike Bowden

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World in Conflict developer Massive Entertainment may be up for sale, but VP David Polfeldt reckons it could be the best thing to happen to the firm.

“It’s exciting when you’ve been inside a publisher for six years, and we haven’t been really shopping for projects or investigating our network to see what’s out there,” he told VG247.

“It’s a very exciting world that suddenly opens up. If things work out this could well be a really, really interesting and positive move for Massive.”

Polfeldt continued, saying the critical acclaim of RTS World in Conflict has considerably eased the process of gaining interest from publishers.

“I mean, I remember trying to find publisher deals and it was just so incredibly hard that you’d kill yourself,” he said.

“And six years later you come back to market with a 90-plus game at your back and the situation is not as hard as it was ten years ago, for sure. That’s been quite a pleasant surprise.”

Speaking exclusively to VG247, Massive Entertainment’s senior execs have revealed that they’re already in talks for a potential sale of the World in Conflict developer, following now-confirmed news that Activision is to sell the outfit as a result of its merger with Blizzard.

“It seems like we have plenty of options,” said company president and founder Martin Walfisz, talking at Develop last week. “We’ve had some good meetings here.”

He added: “Being a part of a merger like this is a strange situation, because obviously the new organisation has to look over all of its assets, everything it owns and its strategy for the future. For the past six month’s we’ve been waiting for the merger to go through and to understand whether they see us as a part of their future or not.

“Apparently they didn’t want an RTS studio in Europe, and to be honest we would have loved to have worked with Activision, but we’re pretty confident in our capabilities and there are not many studios that can match our quality.”

The firm is currently working on the console versions of World in Conflict – Soviet Assault for PS3 and 360 – and has expanded expertise outside the PC space as a result.

“We’re working on the console versions [of World in Conflict] together with Swordfish,” said VP David Polfeldt. “In the past year or so we’ve been increasing our console capabilities, going from PC to having a really good understanding of console as well.”

Activision won’t publish the console titles, however, which are now also on the market.

“Activision won’t publish [Soviet Assault], no,” said Walfisz. “That’s part of the whole situation now. In theory they could sell World in Conflict separately from Massive. I think that any buyer would like to make sure it goes together, but we don’t own it. Activision owns it, so that’s their call.”

While options are opening for the developer, the company is now effectively in limbo. Walfisz was confident, though, that Massive will pull through.

“I think that right now everyone is in ‘wait and see’ mode and just want to know what the future holds,” he said.

“But Massive has been in tough situations before in the past 12 years, and we’ve always come out stronger. Most of the guys in the company at least have faith in our ability to find a really interesting future.”

Activision’s confirmed it’s looking to “realign staffing” at Radical Entertainment and High Moon Studios, and is considering selling Massive Entertainment and Swordfish Studios.

For the record, Radical’s working on Prototype at the moment; High Moon’s just finished up work on Bourne; Massive’s working on the console versions of World in Conflict, now assumed canned; and it’s not clear what UK outfit Swordfish Studios was on right now.

The news comes alongside confirmation that of Sierra’s product slate, only Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age, Spyro, Prototype and an as-yet unannounced property will make the transition to the newly-formed Activision Blizzard.

Activision also said this morning that it’s considering selling Vivendi Games Mobile and Sierra Online.

“We are focused on improving efficiency across the combined organization and are concentrating on businesses where we have leadership positions that are aligned with Activision Publishing’s long-term corporate objectives,” said Activision CEO Mike Griffith.

Press release after the link.

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