You’re close - each game would take an 18 month dev cycle, but they had a six month pre-production. So there were two main teams who would “trade off” each year. A third “team” (people moving in from other projects) would support whichever game was closest to release.
It’s likely that number (16 months) includes pre-production, which is… Definitely short, and explains a lot of problems they’ve had.
(Source: I’ve worked in games for almost 20 years and know people who’ve worked at Activision (pre Blizzard) , Activision-Blizzard, Sledgehammer)
I wouldn’t be surprised. One reason these games often come out so half-baked is because teams get them halfway through dev, but have never worked on the project. So by the time you’ve learned how to work on it, you’re put on a new game.
It’s shocking just how bad the largest studios are at making common sense decisions.
But the sad fact is they’ll still sell an insane amount of copies no matter how bad the game is. The question becomes what will players put up with. The continued amount of players on games like Overwatch 2, the newest COD, HALO, any EA sports game, WoW, etc, all tell them they can do really whatever they want, and people will still support them.
You’re close - each game would take an 18 month dev cycle, but they had a six month pre-production. So there were two main teams who would “trade off” each year. A third “team” (people moving in from other projects) would support whichever game was closest to release.
It’s likely that number (16 months) includes pre-production, which is… Definitely short, and explains a lot of problems they’ve had.
(Source: I’ve worked in games for almost 20 years and know people who’ve worked at Activision (pre Blizzard) , Activision-Blizzard, Sledgehammer)
Didn’t ATVI at one point have no less than 9 studios flipping and flopping through making the game? Too many cooks ruins the soup as they say.
I wouldn’t be surprised. One reason these games often come out so half-baked is because teams get them halfway through dev, but have never worked on the project. So by the time you’ve learned how to work on it, you’re put on a new game.
It’s shocking just how bad the largest studios are at making common sense decisions.
But the sad fact is they’ll still sell an insane amount of copies no matter how bad the game is. The question becomes what will players put up with. The continued amount of players on games like Overwatch 2, the newest COD, HALO, any EA sports game, WoW, etc, all tell them they can do really whatever they want, and people will still support them.