Vivendi fires 350 people

[DarkStar]

Probably won't affect HL2 in the slightest, but I guess its related considering they are the publisher:

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=49601

EDIT: Hmm...notice they don't mention HL2 in the 'upcoming 2004 releases' part of the press release. Am I missing something here? VU is Valve's publisher right?

EDIT #2: Why do they mention that Blizzard specifically has not been affected? Does that mean that Valve HAS been affected by its exclusion from the press release? I'm confused.

 

[SMT]

Yeah, I read that too. Poor guys... hopefully HL2 helps to turn things around. I hate to see people fired.

Regarding VU's release schedule, the patent explanation these days is that since Valve hasn't announced a release date for HL2, VU isn't featuring one.

 

[Tiddalick]

EDIT: Hmm...notice they don't mention HL2 in the 'upcoming 2004 releases' part of the press release. Am I missing something here? VU is Valve's publisher right?

Its coming in 2004...its just not widely written.
If you check VUs Australian website, they list Half-Life 2 as coming in 2004.

http://vugames.com.au/
then search for Half-life 2

 

[lans]

"Other current and upcoming releases for 2004 include Crash Twinsanity, Leisure Suit Larry, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Van Helsing, Ground Control II, Fight Club and Spyro: A Hero's Tail."

I really hope HL2 get's in the list soon.

Hopefully VU will make big bucks with HL2.

 

[The Mullinator]

Its not surprising given how Vivendi has been doing as a whole lately. Make sure you read Tiddalick's post as well, it may not be on the .com site but if it is on the .au site then I suspect that its just a mistake by the .com people. Naturally however this will probably spiral out of controll where everyone starts yelling: "OMG IST NOT ON VIVENDIS 2004 LIST!!!11! THAT MUST MEAN GABE IS LYING OMG!!11!". However maybe this thread will be different.

 

[andungen]

i read in one of the postings under the article that sierra is closing down.thats hl2 publisher isn't it?well, progbably no problem, vivendi will probably find somebody else to do it or something!

 

[Chris D]

Sierra is just a label. Vivendi operates quite a lot of labels including Universal Pictures who publish quite a lot of popular movies.

Whether or not they close down a label should be irrelevant. If a label closes down they'll use the staff from that label elsewhere in the company. Before Sierra got brought out, I imagine quite a lot of there staff got kept on.

 

[RoguePsi]

I get the impression from that article that VU own Blizzard or at least have a close relationship with them. That's why they're mentioned specifically. This will not effect Valve or Half-life 2's release.

Please don't turn this into another thread about Vivendi's schedule. It's unimportant.

 

[Baal]

I just saw something on CTV (Canadian Television) that said the owner or president of Vivendi was arrested....

Something to do with Stock Manipulation I think

 

[Striker]

ouch... hope it doesint meen that hl2 will be on delay again...

 

[The Mullinator]

I get the impression from that article that VU own Blizzard or at least have a close relationship with them. That's why they're mentioned specifically. This will not effect Valve or Half-life 2's release.

Please don't turn this into another thread about Vivendi's schedule. It's unimportant.

Vivendi does own blizzard.

 

[Sai]

I just saw something on CTV (Canadian Television) that said the owner or president of Vivendi was arrested....

Something to do with Stock Manipulation I think

whao, what show, is it a credible one??? this is pretty humungeous news for the president of such an enormous company to be arrested

 

[CrazyHarij]

Hmm, bad news tbh

 

[The Mullinator]

whao, what show, is it a credible one??? this is pretty humungeous news for the president of such an enormous company to be arrested

CTV is a credible news source, and just so people can see what may be going on for themselves here is a brief thing (not CTV) online:

http://www.iht.com/articles/526012.html

I wouldn't worry too much about Vivendi having these problems though, it is such a big company that it can easily continue going on with smaller tasks such as publishing HL2.

 

[Jmechy]

I know that Vivendi is having some interviews for beta testers in LA tomorrow, so don't think things are that horrible.

 

[Bing_Oh]

The FORMER president of VU was arrested for stock manipulation. He resigned in 2002 after VU went into a financial nosedive.

 

[A2597]

yet another reason I hate vivendi...

they cut back, they can their best games (Rather, force developer companies to do so...)

bah.

 

[BlumenKohl]

Sierra is just a label. Vivendi operates quite a lot of labels including Universal Pictures who publishED quite a lot of popular movies.

Let me fix that for ya.

Latest monster bomb that cost Vivendi/Universal $140 million, and probably the paychecks of a few people among those 350: Chronicles of Riddick.

Riddick was supposed to be start a blockbuster franchise for the company. Failed.

Earlier, Van Helsing was supposed to start a blockbuster franchise for the company. Failed.