Former Activision Blizzard employees are now doing their own thing and have set up their own studio, New Tales.
While it feels like the whole gaming world is discussing the working conditions at Activision Blizzard and the takeover of the heavyweight by Microsoft, some former employees are now doing their own thing. Former veterans of Activision Blizzard’s European arm have now announced the formation of their own studio, New Tales.
New Tales is said to be a publisher and developer alike. It is explicitly emphasized that the focus is on the player communities and that you want to build everything around them.
New Tales is based in Paris, where they also want to “create fresh new IPs within their own internal studios”. In addition, the company will also provide publishing services for interested external developer studios. As far as this sub-area is concerned, they see themselves as responsible for global business and not just for Europe; the publishing services are to be characterized by “fair partnerships” with the developer studios.
New Tales’ studio head is Cedric Marechal, who was previously international senior vice president at Activision Blizzard. He is assisted by Benoit Dufour, who also used to work at Vivendi Games. Other prominent names on the team include Delphie Le Corre (most recently Senior Director EMEA at Blizzard) and Emmanuel Obert (formerly EMEA Director at Blizzard and also at Ubisoft).
Former Blue Silver Studios co-founders Ray and Kim Gresko are also on board, as is Julia Humphreys, former Overwatch Production Director. The first projects are already being worked on with partners, including a first proprietary IP; what this is about is not yet known.
