Activisionhas officially announced Elsewhere Entertainment, a new internal studio based in Warsaw, Poland. Activision says this new studio is focused on “creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.” While exciting, its inception couldn’t have come at a worse time for both Activision and the industry as a whole.
According to the company’sannouncement post, Elsewhere is “built from the ground up” and consists of a collection of storytelling experts whose credits include The Last of Us, Uncharted, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Destiny, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Far Cry.
While that’s certainly an impressive line-up of AAA titles, I’m not sure I trust Activision, the company known for shoving microtransactions down everyone’s throats at any opportunity they get, to create a new, narrative-based franchise and it solely be about the narrative experience.
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But my trust in Activision is a story for another day. After reading the announcement and seeing that Elsewhere is formed of devs from some of my favourite games, The Last Of Us and Cyberpunk 2077 being the two main ones, I was met with a wave of excitement as I pondered on what this new studio could create.
A Dark Time For The Video Game Industry
Then I was brought back down to earth after remembering that Microsoft, who now officially owns Activision,just shut down Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Games. The former of which had just released one of the most stylish and beloved games of 2023: Hi-Fi Rush.
Despite the critical acclaim and multiple high-profile awards, Hi-Fi Rush, apparently, wasn’t enough to prevent the closure of Tango Gameworks. And this, sadly, is just the latest in a long line of shutdowns and layoffs. According toObsidian(a website that tracks game industry layoffs), there have been approximately 9,700 layoffs since the beginning of the year. Almost the same amount as the whole of 2023.
Of course, new studios aren’t just formed overnight. It’s speculated that Elsewhere Entertainment’s first title hasbeen in development since 2022, long before video game layoffs became a weekly occurrence. But, nevertheless, the timing of the announcement is most certainly odd. For Activision to announce the formation of a new studio, just days after its parent company closed four different studios seems tone-deaf.
Should I Even Be Excited?
Elsewhere Entertainment has the foundations to be a studio that makes the sort of video games I adore. AAA, narrative-based titles from some of the industry’s biggest names? Ishouldbe excited to see what the studio is cooking, but is there any point?
Studios like Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games, who have brought us the likes of The Last of Us and Marvel’s Spider-Man have been hit with layoffs over the last 12 months. Heck, even Activision-Blizzard was hit with almost 2,000 layoffs shortly after being acquired by Microsoft. So what’s to say that Elsewhere Entertainment won’t meet the same fate as these other studios?
I’m excited to see what Elsewhere is cooking, but right now, it’s difficult to be enthusiastic about any new video games when so many hard-working developers are losing their jobs left and right.
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