68-669: Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California . It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard , and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California , by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for
136-575: A $ 20,000 salary. Out of a development staff of thirty-five, four programmers (Crane, Larry Kaplan , Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead ), had produced games that had accounted for 60% of Atari's sales. Crane, Kaplan, Miller, and Whitehead became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the "Gang of Four". The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes. Kaplan, who called
204-469: A Call of Duty spin-off title fashioned after the gameplay in Dead Space . However, in early 2010, legal issues between Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard led to several members of Infinity Ward leaving, and Activision assigned Sledgehammer to assist Infinity Ward in the next major Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 3 . Since then, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch share development duties for
272-459: A holding company , Activision Holdings, to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively. Activision changed its corporate name from "Activision, Inc." to "Activision Publishing, Inc.", while Activision Holdings took Activision's former "Activision, Inc." name. Activision Publishing became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, which in turn became the publicly traded company, with all outstanding shares of capital stock converted. Some of
340-505: A corporate merger, the struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom in June 1986. This acquisition was spearheaded by Levy, who was a big fan of Infocom's titles and felt the company was in a similar position as Activision. About six months after the "Infocom Wedding", Activision's board decided to replace Levy with Bruce Davis . Davis was against the purchase of Infocom from the start and was heavy-handed in its management, and even attempted to seek
408-408: A formal lawsuit against Activision to try to stop the company, claiming the four had stolen trade secrets and violated non-disclosure agreements . The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model. Following the first round of releases, each of the founders developed their own titles, about once a year, over
476-637: A group, they have had mixed performance. At present, Electronic Arts is the only third-party publisher present in the S&;P 500 diversified list of large U.S. corporations; in April 2010, it entered the Fortune 500 for the first time. Hype over video game publisher stocks has been breathless at two points: Bob Whitehead Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer . While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of
544-538: A lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom's shareholders. Crane also found Davis difficult to work with and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of Imagic , one of the third-party development studios formed after Activision's success in 1981. Crane left Activision in 1986 and helped Garry Kitchen found Absolute Entertainment . In late 1986, Activision adopted the Electric Dreams brand, usually used for British software, for titles outside of English for
612-835: A much smaller office space in Santa Monica at the Pen Factory (a former Paper Mate factory) from Kite Pharma , which had leased the space from Lincoln Property Company. With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft in October 2023, Activision Blizzard as a whole, including the Activision Publishing subdivision, became a separate division under the Microsoft Gaming arm of Microsoft. On March 8, 2024, 600 Activision QA workers in Texas, Minnesota and California unionized under
680-521: A number of video publishers, including Activision, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections which concern not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness. In 2003, the company was awarded the Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award in recognition of its place as the first third-party developer. Video game publisher A video game publisher
748-509: A profit, Kotick led Activision to start seeking acquisitions of video game development studios, guided by market surveys to determine what areas of content to focus on. It is estimated that between 1997 and 2008, Activision made 25 acquisitions, several for undisclosed amounts. Several of these came prior to 2001, in the midst of the Dot-com bubble , enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation. On June 16, 2000, Activision reorganized as
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#1732854994677816-407: A purchase with Davis, Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic in a hostile takeover for approximately $ 500,000 in 1991. This group of investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips Electronics . Kotick became CEO of Mediagenic on its purchase and made several immediate changes: He let go of all but 8 of the companies' 150 employees, performed a full restructuring of
884-535: A single sale. Around 2006, Kotick contacted Jean-Bernard Lévy , the new CEO of Vivendi , a French media conglomerate. Vivendi had a games division, Vivendi Games , that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principal feature was that it owned Blizzard Entertainment and its highly successful World of Warcraft game, which was drawing in $ 1.1 billion a year in subscription fees. Vivendi Games also owned Sierra Entertainment . Lévy recognized Kotick wanted control of World of Warcraft , and offered to allow
952-540: A staff of producers or project managers to monitor the developer's progress, critique ongoing development, and assist as necessary. Most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties. These advances are paid when the developer reaches certain stages of development, called milestones . Video game publishing is associated with high risk : AAA game publishers produce and create games that are high budget and groundbreaking. They are advanced in technology and forward
1020-528: A successful inroad into getting their games into China, a potentially lucrative market. Given this potential opportunity, Kotick agreed to the merger. Activision's board signed on to the merger by December 2007. The merger was completed in July 2008. The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company. The new company was estimated to be worth US$ 18.9 billion , ahead of Electronic Arts , which
1088-429: A wider consumer pool and have access to distribute to a big network. Although they have creative constraints within game development and marketing, they often focus and follow market trends. They have a higher demand to attain commercial success. Examples of AAA video game publishers are Electronic Arts , Ubisoft , and Activision . Indie game publishers are companies that work with independent developers. Their focus
1156-406: Is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer . They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this external development ) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio . The large video game publishers also distribute
1224-448: Is an active [Atari 2600] owner who doesn't have at least one Activision cartridge in his library". The company completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN. The success of Activision, alongside the popularity of the Atari 2600, led to many more home consoles third-party developers as well as other home consoles. Activision produced some of its Atari games for
1292-611: Is on developing games that promotes creativity and originality. Developers have creative control over their games. These publishers implement intimate collaborations between the publishers and the developers. Often stand out in the video game market due to the more unique genres. Indie game publishers have restrict marketing budgets and have small audience reach and visibility. Examples of Indie video game publishers are Devolver Digital , Annapurna Interactive and Raw Fury . Mobile game publishers produce and specialize in video games on smartphones and tablet devices. They take advantage of
1360-521: The Amiga line of personal computers. After failing to complete purchase, the group bought a company that licensed Nintendo characters, and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic. Kotick was drawn to buy out Mediagenic not for its current offerings but for the Activision name, given its past successes with Pitfall! , with hopes to restore Activision to its former glory. After failing to negotiate
1428-451: The Atari 2600 ). He developed several games, including a VCS implementation of chess , a feat many other programmers considered impossible for the system. He and his co-workers David Crane , Larry Kaplan , and Alan Miller became informally known as the "Gang of Four", a group of developers who felt inadequately compensated for their work despite being collectively responsible for 60 percent of
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#17328549946771496-622: The Call of Duty franchise. This includes a new studio, Activision Mobile, devoted to the Call of Duty Mobile title as reported in August 2021. In 2021, while all their employees were working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic , Activision and its parent Activision Blizzard vacated their longtime headquarters building in Santa Monica and ended their lease with Boston Properties . In September 2021, they subleased
1564-672: The Commodore 64 , Apple , and Atari 8-bit computers to avoid completely going out of business like other third-party developers. There still was a drain of talent through 1985 from the crash. Miller and Whitehead left in 1984 due to the large devaluation of their stock and went on to form Accolade . With the video game crash making console game development a risky proposition, the company focused on developing for home computers with games like Little Computer People and Hacker , while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered. Looking to expand further, Activision acquired, through
1632-666: The Communication Workers of America (CWA), marking it as the largest union in the United States video game industry . On May 16, 2024, Activision announced the establishment of Warsaw -based studio Elsewhere Entertainment, assembled for the development of a new narrative-based AAA IP not associated with other Activision series like Call of Duty . The studio comprises various developers associated with other narrative-driven gaming franchises such as The Last of Us , Uncharted , The Witcher and Far Cry among others; at
1700-460: The Intellivision and ColecoVision consoles, among other platforms. However, several new third-party developers also arose, attempting to follow the approach Activision had used but without the experience they had; according to Crane, several of these companies were founded with venture capital and hired programmers with little game design experience off the street, mass-publishing whatever product
1768-642: The American market. In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities. Mediagenic consisted of four groups: In 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios, extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's Silicon Valley headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer. Notably during this time, Mediagenic
1836-492: The Gang of Four, disgruntled by the management's decline to provide more recognition and fair compensation to the developers, decided to leave Atari and start their own business. Whitehead together with Miller, Crane and Kaplan co-founded Activision , the first third-party video game developer, in October 1979. There, with others, he created a VCS development system with an integrated debugger and minicomputer -hosted assembler . It
1904-466: The acquisition of Infocom . After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy replaced by Bruce Davis , the company renamed itself to Mediagenic and branched out into business software applications. Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the company was bought for around US$ 500,000 by Bobby Kotick and a small group of investors around 1991. Kotick drastically revamped and restructured the company to get it out of debt: dismissing most of its staff, moving
1972-542: The back cover. Instruction manuals for games devoted at least one page to credit the developer. Additionally, for nearly all of Activision's games through 1983, the instruction manuals included instructions for sending the company a photograph of a player's high scores to receive a patch in return. Ahead of the release of the first four games, Activision obtained space at the mid-year 1980 Consumer Electronics Show to showcase their titles, and quickly obtained favorable press. The attention afforded to Activision worried Atari, as
2040-410: The boundaries of technology and creativity in the video game world. AAA game publishers often produce popular and blockbuster games. These publishers have the financial resource and means to fund large game development projects. These publishers implement and fund marketing and distribution to guarantee reach and exposure for their games. With their funds to market they are able to advertise and reach
2108-410: The box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels). Large publishers also attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for commonly needed functionality. Because the publisher often finances development, they usually try to manage development risk along with
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2176-543: The companies to merge, but only if Lévy held the majority shares in the merged group, forcing Kotick to cede control. Kotick fretted about this decision for a while, according to friends and investors. During this time in 2006–2007, some of Activision's former successful properties began to wane, such as Tony Hawk's , so Activision bought RedOctane , the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise. Kotick met with Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime , and learned that Blizzard also had
2244-627: The company develop a sequel, Return to Zork . Combined, these steps allowed Mediagenic to fulfill on the bankruptcy plan, and by the end of 1992, Kotick renamed Mediagenic to the original Activision name. The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about $ 40 million , and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI . By 1995, Kotick's approach had met one promise he made to investors: that he would give them four years of 50% growth in revenues while remaining break-even. Reaching this goal, Kotick then set Activision on his second promise to investors, to develop high-demand games and make
2312-732: The company profitable by 1997. Activision published the first-person perspective MechWarrior in 1989, based on FASA 's pen-and-paper game BattleTech . A sequel, MechWarrior 2 , was released in 1995 after two years of delays and internal struggles, prompting FASA not to renew their licensing deal with Activision. To counter, Activision released several more games bearing the MechWarrior 2 name, which did not violate their licensing agreement. These included NetMech , MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy , and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries . The entire MechWarrior 2 game series accounted for more than US$ 70 million in sales. Activision procured
2380-472: The company to Los Angeles, and reverting to the Activision name. Building on existing assets, the Kotick-led Activision pursued more publishing opportunities and, after recovering from its former financial troubles, started acquiring numerous studios and various types of intellectual property over the 1990s and 2000s, among these being the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series. A holding company
2448-461: The company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success; this included convincing Philips Electronics , Magnavox's parent company, to convert their legal debt into stock in Activision. Kotick also had the company reissue several of its past console and Infocom titles as compilations for personal computers. Kotick had also recognized the value of the Zork property from Infocom, and had
2516-522: The company will continue to operate as a separate business. While part of the larger Microsoft Gaming division, Activision retains its function as the publisher of games developed by their studios. In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari, Inc. from Nolan Bushnell to help accelerate the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later the Atari 2600) to market by 1977. That same year, Atari began hiring programmers to create games for
2584-449: The company's profits from VCS cartridge sales. Whitehead is sometimes credited as co-author, together with the rest of the Gang of Four, of the operating system for the Atari 400/800 computers . It has been however clarified both by Al Miller and by Whitehead himself that he was not involved in the OS development, although he took part in developing applications for the computers. Eventually
2652-472: The company, developed a bankruptcy restructuring plan, and reincorporated the company in Los Angeles, California. In the bankruptcy plan, Kotick recognized that Mediagenic still had valuable assets, which included the Infocom library as well as its authoring tools to make games, Activision's distribution network, and licenses to develop on Nintendo and Sega home consoles. Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in
2720-414: The developers had made. This was a contributing factor to the video game crash of 1983 . For Activision, while they survived the crash, they felt its effects in the following years. These third-party developers folded, leaving warehouses full of unsold games, which savvy retailers purchased and sold at a mass discount ( $ 5 compared to Activision's $ 40 manufacturer's suggested retail price ). While there
2788-466: The development of the Amiga personal computer as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development. Total sales for Activision were estimated at $ 157 million and revenues at $ 60 million ahead of its June 1983 initial public offering ; at this point Activision had around 60 employees. Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games in 1983, "I doubt that there
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2856-399: The first few years of the company. While their 1980 games were modest hits, one of the company's first successful games was Kaboom! , released in 1981, which was Activision's first game to sell over a million units. Activision's breakout title was 1982's Pitfall! , created by Crane. More than four million copies of the game were sold. Near the end of 1982, Kaplan left Activision to work on
2924-399: The first major game distributed in this format. Davis' management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company; in 1991, Mediagenic reported a loss of $ 26.8 million on only $ 28.8 million of revenue and had over $ 60 million in debt. This debt included a $ 6 million penalty against Mediagenic in May 1990 after losing patent infringement lawsuits filed against it by Magnavox over
2992-399: The flagship series, with support from Raven and other studios as necessary. In February 2010, Activision Blizzard reported significant losses in revenue stemming from a slow down in Guitar Hero sales and from its more casual games. Subsequently, Activision Publishing shuttered Red Octane, Luxoflux and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft. Within
3060-455: The four to secure about $ 1 million in capital from Sutter Hill Ventures . They also checked with legal counsel on their plans to develop games for the Atari VCS, and included litigation fees in their capital investment. By August, Crane and Miller had left Atari, with Whitehead joining them shortly after. Kaplan had also quit Atari in August, but initially decided not to join as he did not like
3128-400: The four's departure had already created a major dent in their development staff. Atari initially tried to tarnish Activision's reputation by using industry press at CES to label those that took trade secrets as "evil, terrible people", according to Crane, and then later threatened to refuse to sell Atari games to retailers that also carried these Activision titles. By the end of 1980, Atari filed
3196-429: The game mostly unfinished. Katz and Sega were forced to take the incomplete game to Electronic Arts , which had been developing its own John Madden Football series for personal computers, to complete the game. During this period Mediagenic, via Activision, secured the rights to distribute games from Cyan Worlds . The first game published by Activision from Cyan was The Manhole , on CD-ROM for personal computers,
3264-431: The games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses that are used by the game; paying for localization ; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as
3332-409: The key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include: While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was concerned that they did not have a title for the growing massively multiplayer online market, which presented the opportunity for continued revenues from subscription models and microtransactions instead of the revenue from
3400-444: The latter half of 1979, each programmer developing their own game that was planned for release in mid-1980: Dragster , Fishing Derby , Checkers , and Boxing . The four's knowledge of the Atari 2600, as well as software tricks for the system, helped them make their own games visually distinct from Atari-produced games. To further distinguish themselves, Activision's boxes were brightly colored and featured an in-game screenshot on
3468-459: The license to another pen-and-paper-based war game , Heavy Gear , in 1997. The video game version was well received by critics, with an 81.46% average rating on GameRankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by GameSpot . The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1997's Interstate '76 and 1998's Battlezone . With several of its own successfully developed games helping to turn
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#17328549946773536-558: The nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: Blackjack and Star Ship . After leaving Atari, he cofounded third party video game developer Activision , then Accolade . He left the video game industry in the mid-1980s. Whitehead attended San Jose State University and received a BS in Mathematics. Whitehead worked for Atari, Inc. in the late 1970s developing games for the Video Computer System (later renamed to
3604-425: The others "the best designers for the [2600] in the world", recalled that Kassar called the four men "towel designers" and claimed that "anybody can do a cartridge". The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business, but were not sure how to go about it. In 1979, the concept of third-party developers did not exist, as software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of
3672-417: The popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983 , in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including
3740-605: The same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and Bizarre Creations in February 2011. Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018. Into the 2020s, Activision put more focus on the Call of Duty franchise, including the release of the free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone in 2020. By April 2021, the company had assigned all of its internal studios to work on some part of
3808-448: The similarities of Activition's games to Magnavox's patents. Cyan severed their contract with Activision, and turned to Broderbund for publishing, including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s, Myst . Bobby Kotick had become interested in the value of the video game industry following the crash, and he and three other investors worked to buy Commodore International in an effort to gain access to
3876-502: The starting business plan; he came back later to join Activision that December. Activision was formally founded on October 1, 1979, with Levy serving as CEO. The company was initially named "Computer Arts, Inc." while they considered a better title. The founders had thought of the name VSync, Inc., but feared that the public would not understand or know how to say it. Levy suggested combining "active" and "television" to come up with Activision. Activision began working out of Crane's garage in
3944-534: The system. Prior to Warner's acquisition, the company did not award bonus pay to programmers who worked on profitable games, nor credit the programmers publicly, to prevent them from being recruited by rival game companies. Warner Communication's management style was also different from Bushnell's. According to developer John Dunn , Warner management treated developers as engineers rather than creative staff, creating conflicts with staff. Atari's CEO Ray Kassar , named to that position following Warner's acquisition in 1978,
4012-440: The systems for which the games were designed; thus the common thinking was that to make console games, one needed to make a console first. The four decided to create their own independent game development company. They were directed by their attorney to Jim Levy , who was at the time raising venture capital to get into the software business for early home computers. Levy listened to their plans, agreed with its direction, and helped
4080-500: The time of announcement they were recruiting more staff to create a " state-of-the-art and next-generation gaming experience", as well as a franchise with "an enduring legacy that goes far beyond games." In July 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) actor labor union, which provides numerous video game voice actors, would initiate a labor strike against
4148-704: The widespread appeal and rise of mobile gaming. These publishers enhance games for touch based interfaces and devices. They are proficient in designing monetization tactics for mobile platforms. Mobile game publishers have a comprehensive understanding of the mobile gaming market. They have proficiency in strategies for engagement and user acquisition for mobile sites. For mobile gaming there is access through app stores for distribution channels. There are obstacles with monetization due to lack of in-app purchase and free-to-play(F2P) models . Examples of Mobile game publishers are Supercell , King , and Zynga . Numerous video game publishers are traded publicly on stock markets . As
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#17328549946774216-406: Was committed to keeping production costs minimal for Warner, according to David Crane , one of Atari's programmers . In early 1979, Atari's marketing department circulated a memo listing the best-selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas. Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over $ 20 million for the company but he was still only receiving
4284-477: Was formed as Activision's parent company to manage both its internal and acquired studios. In 2008, this holding company merged with Vivendi Games (the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment ) and formed Activision Blizzard, with Kotick as its CEO. Within this structure, Activision manages numerous third-party studios and publishes all games besides those created by Blizzard. In October 2023, Microsoft acquired parent company Activision Blizzard, maintaining that
4352-411: Was known to have worked on the early version of a football game that would be the basis for Joe Montana Football . Sega of America's Michael Katz had been able to get Sega to pay Mediagenic around early 1990 to develop this into the branded version after securing the rights to Joe Montana 's name, but was unaware of internal troubles that had been going on within the company, which had left the state of
4420-521: Was low. They thought that diversification to the home computer market — such as with the Commodore 64 — was the key to success. He left Activision with Alan Miller (another co-founder of Activision), and they founded Accolade . Soon after, Whitehead left the video game industry for good. Whitehead left in order to "give back to God and spend time with 'the fam'". After leaving Accolade, Whitehead says he helped with "low income families, getting non-profit religious start-ups going, [and] spending time in
4488-466: Was still a demand for Activision games, uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily discounted titles instead, reducing their income. Their quarterly revenue dropped from $ 50 million in mid-1983 to about $ 6–7 million by the end of 1984, according to Levy, and they were forced to lay off staff, going from about 400 employees to 95 in that period. Because of this, Activision decided that they needed to diversify their games onto home computers such as
4556-464: Was used for most of Activision's VCS titles. He also developed a "venetian blinds" animation technique: an algorithm that horizontally reused and vertically interlaced sprites several times while rendering each frame, to give the illusion that the system had more than the maximum number of sprites allowed by the hardware. In 1984, he and other founders of Activision became disillusioned with their company. Their stock had dwindled in value and morale
4624-546: Was valued at US$ 14.1 billion . Activision Publishing remains a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard following the merger, and is responsible for developing, producing, and distributing games from its internal and subsidiary studios. Eric Hirshberg was announced as Activision Publishing's CEO in 2010. Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009. Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey , former Visceral Games leads that had worked on Dead Space , Sledgehammer intended to develop
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