Massive already in talks with possible new owners

Following the announcement last week by Activision Blizzard that it had taken stock of its assets and planned to axe or sell off various Sierra properties, developer Massive Entertainment has revealed that it's upbeat on its future.

"It seems like we have plenty of options," company president and founder Martin Walfisz told VG247. "We've had some good meetings here [at the Develop conference.]"

"Being a part of a merger like this is a strange situation, because obviously the new organisation has to look over all of its assets, everything it owns and its strategy for the future. For the past six months we've been waiting for the merger to go through and to understand whether they see us as a part of their future or not.

"Apparently they didn't want an RTS studio in Europe, and to be honest we would have loved to have worked with Activision, but we're pretty confident in our capabilities and there are not many studios that can match our quality."

Company VP David Polfeldt added that Massive was working on the expansion to World in Conflict for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 alongside Swordfish - but Walfisz revealed that while Activision Blizzard won't be publishing the titles, it does own the IP.

"That's part of the whole situation now. In theory they could sell World in Conflict separately from Massive. I think that any buyer would like to make sure it goes together, but we don't own it. Activision owns it, so that's their call.

"I think that right now everyone is in 'wait and see' mode and just want to know what the future holds," he said. "But Massive has been in tough situations before in the past 12 years, and we've always come out stronger. Most of the guys in the company at least have faith in our ability to find a really interesting future."

No details on timescale, or who the potential suitors might be, were revealed - although one Europe-based publisher has been strongly linked to the studio.