Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1991 and previously developed games for game publishers such as THQ, Microsoft and Fox Interactive. It is now an entirely owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard after being acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005.[1]. On June 28, 2012, Activision laid off 89 of Radical's employees for the low sales of its latest gaming product, Prototype 2, hence Radical being unable to develop its own games from there onwards. [2]
History[]
Radical Entertainment was founded by Dave Davis, Rory Armes and Ian Wilkinson. Davis and Armes previously worked at Vancouver based Distinctive Software (now EA Canada). Wilkinson was an enthusiastic newcomer to the games industry.
Vivendi Acquisition[]
Radical Entertainment had developed a few titles for Vivendi Universal Entertainment, titles that gained massive success and warranteed the company's interest in the developers. In 2005, Vivendi acquired Radical Entertainment. After being acquired by Vivendi, Radical began to make many games such as Scarface: The World is Yours and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction while being published under Vivendi's Sierra Entertainment label. Radical was also given the licence to continue development of the Crash Bandicoot franchise which was also published under Sierra Entertainment. Radical developed 3 Crash Bandicoot games which were Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, and Crash: Mind Over Mutant. During the development of Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Radical began working on its first original IP, Prototype.
Development under Activision ownership[]
After the release of Prototype in 2009 Radical did not officially announce any new projects. A posting on Crash Mania seemed to indicate that Radical was developing the next game in the Crash Bandicoot franchise. This project appears to have been halted. In early 2010, Activision Blizzard underwent another round of restructuring. This led to Radical slashing their staff by half, which seems to have either halted or ended development on the Crash Bandicoot game. Leaked images, concept art and gameplay videos of an unnanounced Crash Bandicoot game seems to have supported this idea.
At the Spike Video Game Awards Radical announced Prototype 2.
2011[]
Radical Entertainment released the first details for Prototype 2 in an interview with 'EGMI'. In the same interview they revealed that they halted the development on an unknown game, likely the Crash title, after the massive success of Prototype. Radical did not, however, continue to say that they would keep working on the title, hand it off to be finished by another developer or what the title actually even was. In April 2011, more information on the leaked Crash Bandicoot title came from a video posted on Radical Entertainment's website. Crash: Mind Over Mutant was re-released for the Xbox 360 for the Xbox Live Arcade in 2011. One of Radical's many canceled games that was scheduled to be released in 2011 - 2012, video footage was leaked. This title was entitled Treadstone and was to be a Jason Bourne video game. The game was later revealed to be canceled with the Bourne Video Game License reverting back to Ludlum and then going to EA. [3]
Games developed[]
Activision[]
- Prototype 2 (2012)
- Crash Bandicoot title (Status Unknown)
- Prototype (2009)
Vivendi (under Sierra label)[]
- Crash: Mind over Mutant (2008) (Note: Some copies use the Activison label)
- Crash of the Titans (2007)
- Scarface: The World is Yours (2006)
- The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005)
- Crash Tag Team Racing (2005)