Bobby Kotick Reflects on the Strange Acquisition as an ‘Expensive and Inappropriate Lesson’
By Image courtesy of Strange Creations/Xbox.
Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, has expressed regret regarding the acquisition of Strange Creations back in 2007.
In a recent conversation with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins on the Grit Podcast, Kotick referred to the UK-based studio as a “poor acquisition.” However, he was unable to identify the studio during the interview and described it as “um…in Manchester, that developed the driving game for Xbox.”
Strange, located in Liverpool, created the Project Gotham Racing series for the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Activision Blizzard acquired the studio for an initial $67.4 million, along with an extra $40 million conditional on achieving specific milestones over the next five years.
Between 2008 and 2010, Strange launched four titles—Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Geometry Wars: Touch, Blur, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone—before its closure in 2011.
Kotick went on to speak about a “really good guy, who was managing the daily operations,” whom he could not name, but appears to be the then-studio head Brian Woodhouse. He regarded at Woodhouse as “brilliant,” but stated the acquisition of Strange amounted to “$80 million” overall and was subsequently written off two years later. “Everything about it breached all our principles.”
Nonetheless, he emphasized that his former company’s acquisition strategy was to obtain firms for their proprietary technology, intellectual property, or “history of profitability.” Retaining a studio’s leadership and ensuring that the firm maintained its autonomy was also seen as a stark contrast to a studio like EA, which he claimed would acquire a developer and change the original title with its own branding.
Kotick’s comments are surprisingly candid
High-ranking video game executives typically speak fondly about the studios they’ve acquired, often highlighting the potential value they will bring to the publisher’s portfolio. This was, after all, how Microsoft convinced the public of the merits of its acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and various other third-party developers.
Kotick’s remarks regarding Strange are more straightforward than what many executives in his previous position might have offered, or at least more deliberate. Generally, when an executive is dissatisfied with a studio, they critique its latest release and diminish that developer’s workforce, as recently evidenced with BioWare and Phoenix Labs.
As another instance, Xbox head Matt Booty mentioned creating “smaller games that give us recognition and awards” in 2023, just days after closing Tango Gameworks, creators of the acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush.
Following Strange’s closure, several former employees went on to establish Lucid Games, which continued the Geometry Wars franchise and more recently released Destruction AllStars on PlayStation 5. Lucid is also a co-developer for Rare’s Sea of Thieves, and was acquired by Lightspeed Studios in 2023. At the time of this acquisition, Lucid stated it would leverage its new parent company’s resources while “continuing to enjoy full independence in the games that we develop and in the operations of the studio.”
About the Author
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A native of Kansas City, MO, Justin Carter has contributed to numerous websites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his articles can also be found on io9 at Gizmodo. Do not ask him about how much gum he’s consumed, as the answer may be more than he’s willing to acknowledge.