Source: Hollywood trade magazine Variety's game blog Cut Scene.

　　What we heard: Played out in near-picturesque after-school-special fashion, two of the most popular kids in gaming--Activision and Vivendi Games--emerged from behind closed doors holding hands last December to announce a union worth nearly $19 billion. Analysts were quick to embrace the new Activision Blizzard conglomerate, given that Activision has dominated the console sales charts with games such as Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4, and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft franchise on the PC continues to infuse Vivendi with roughly $1 billion each year.

　　With Vivendi having locked down financing for the deal in January, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said recently that the merger was on course to close by the end of June. Unfortunately, that may spell bad news for Blizzard's little brother, Sierra Entertainment. Variety's gaming blog editor Ben Fritz today claims that with the massive merger in its throes, Activision is taking a long, hard look at all Vivendi-published games, with Sierra-branded games receiving especial scrutiny.

　　"I've had numerous sources tell me that development teams on all of Vivendi's games now have to essentially pitch their projects to Activision executives," said Fritz. "Until the merger is technically complete, work proceeds as usual, but once it's over, Activision will start making some decisions. And it seems very unlikely that everything at Sierra will keep going as it has been. Just like when a new executive team takes over at a film studio, some projects in development get killed and others get changed as the new folks in charge start establishing their own tastes and corporate priorities."

　　Reiterating Activision's professed motivation in the merger, Fritz also cast doubt on the future of some of Vivendi's more high-profile, non-Blizzard games. "Activision obviously made the deal to get its hands on the biggest MMO, and really the biggest game, in the industry. Everything else is basically an afterthought," argued Fritz. "Which leaves all of those making the afterthoughts in an uncertain position. Titles set to come out this year, like The Bourne Conspiracy, Prototype, Brütal Legend, and Ghostbusters, are probably fine since they're so far along. But those in development for 2009 and later? They'll all TBD."

　　After Vivendi reorganized its games division to more prominently leverage its Blizzard and Sierra labels in early 2006, Sierra's efforts have found modest-to-poor consumer reception in the US. Running through a list of some of the publisher's more high-profile releases, Joint Task Force for the PC sold 36,000 units and TimeShift shifted 194,000 across three platforms. Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning sold reasonably well with 693,000 units across five platforms, but its follow-up, The Eternal Night, managed only 241,000 across five SKUs. The publisher's most critically acclaimed project in some time--World in Conflict, developed by Massive for the PC--managed only 134,000 in US sales. (All sales numbers come courtesy of the industry-tracking NPD Group's January 2008 report.)

　　The prospect that Vivendi's future games will be sent to Activision execs to be green-lit is a certainty. Even though Vivendi will have a 52 percent controlling stake in Activision Blizzard as per the original terms of the merger, it will be Activision brass Bobby Kotick and Mike Griffith lording over Activision Publishing, which will include Sierra once the merger goes through. It also stands to reason that given Sierra's lackluster performance in light of the hit-driven industry climate, Activision execs may institute a number of changes within the publisher to get it back on track.

　　The official story: Nearly all of the studios working under Vivendi Games contacted by GameSpot opted to keep mum on Fritz's claim, citing the necessity of a quiet period leading up to the Activision Blizzard merger finalizing. That is, save for Brütal Legend creators Double Fine. "I'm sure Activision is reviewing all the games--that only makes sense," said Double Fine boss Tim Schafer. "But I haven't been asked to go anywhere or pitch anything special. Anyway, like you said, Brütal Legend speaks for itself! Anyone messes with our game, Ronnie James Dio will put a hex on them."

　　As for the publishing houses themselves, neither Sierra Entertainment nor Activision had responded to requests for comment as of press time.

　　Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that Activision execs will oversee Vivendi and Sierra's projects once the Activision Blizzard merger goes through. Looking bogus that any of Sierra or Vivendi's projects are on the chopping block or have already been lopped off.